


Wedded Bliss

by MaliceManaged



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: (cause that always works out), Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Arranged Marriage, F/M, Loki Does What He Wants, Odin's Parenting, Tumblr Prompt, Tumblr: imagine-loki
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-19
Updated: 2018-12-03
Packaged: 2018-12-17 05:14:44
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 26
Words: 32,015
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11844672
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MaliceManaged/pseuds/MaliceManaged
Summary: A good marriage can yield many a positive result, Odin Borson knows this well.A good marriage, Odin Borson would find, is not necessarily a sane one...





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Yeah, I know. I _know._ But at this point I'm happy to be writing anything at all.
> 
> Based on this prompt: _Imagine Odin determined to find Loki a wife in a misguided, though somewhat well-intentioned attempt to ‘mellow him’. After Loki flat out refuses every woman presented to him (mainly to annoy his father); an increasingly frustrated Odin decides to try something else and enchants an object, a pendant with Loki’s symbol, and sends it off randomly into the Nine Realms, to be found by a woman who would suit his troublesome son. In lands on Midgard and once it’s found, Odin, Thor and a very reluctant Loki set off to retrieve the latter’s future bride, only to find that the woman in question is… possibly crazier than Loki and not at all what the Allfather had in mind._

    He wasn’t listening. At all. Oh, he was good at pretending otherwise, the Allfather gave him that, but his mind was already done with the conversation at hand and moved on to other things. Most likely his next headache-inducing shenanigan.

 

    Odin ceased his scolding and heaved a resigned sigh, deciding he didn’t want to continue wasting his breath. “You are not to leave your chambers - you or your magick - until I can fix this mess; is that clear?” A nod and a really quite impressive attempt at concealed self-satisfaction, and the king waved a hand in dismissal. “Leave my sight,” He ordered irritably.

 

    Loki sketched a bow that was at least slightly sincere then turned and left, waiting until he was out of his father’s hall to let his amusement show. Sure, he was, for all intents and purposes, grounded for the foreseeable future, but it had been so very worth it just for the look on those so-called nobles’ faces. They would certainly think twice about mocking him again, and it wasn’t as though his prank would cause any serious diplomatic incident, since they weren’t nearly that important. Nobody was even hurt. _Well,_ he considered with a smirk; _not seriously, anyway._

 

    Really, his father’s scolding was more for show than anything. There was a time he would have laughed along with him, even. _Perhaps age has dulled his sense of humour,_ Loki mused. Oh, well. _More fun for me._

 

****

 

    Odin sat at his desk after Loki had left, thinking. In reality, the incident that brought them there wasn’t that serious; it was amusing, even, to see those self-absorbed brats knocked down a peg or two, not that the king would admit so aloud. No, the problem was that it was the Trickster’s third ‘prank’ in as many weeks, which in turn was part of a bigger problem. Odin had long since known his youngest son was prone to mischief, drawn to it like a moth to flame from his earliest days; it had, by and large, been harmless fun in the past. A source of entertainment depending on the target.

 

    But the king worried. Loki was most certainly no longer a boy and yet he persisted in behaving like one with such actions. Worse still, his tricks had a way of getting out of hand at times; he had a temper that could match his brother’s, even as his way of letting it loose couldn’t be more different, and woe to the one who stoked it. How long before he went too far?

 

    “But how to steady him?” Odin mused aloud. His gaze fell to the desk before him, then to his hand, and he eyed his wedding ring for a long moment, thinking.

 

    An idea formed, one he couldn’t believe he hadn’t thought of before.

 

****

 

    Loki stared at his father from his seat in the royal family’s private dining room, which he had been allowed to because not even the Allfather himself dared go against Frigga’s wish that her family dine together in the evenings, his face the picture of confusion. Beside him, Thor seemed just as surprised, if only because he’d expected he’d be on the receiving end of such a subject before his brother would.

 

    “You can’t be serious,” Loki finally said. Odin’s expression did not change. “I don’t want a wife!”

 

    “I did not ask,” Odin replied.

 

    Loki scoffed incredulously. “Is this political?” He asked, thinking that the likelier explanation, “Why me, then? Why not Thor? He’s the eldest.” Thor began to protest but Loki ignored him. “Or is this only for minor gain?” He asked bitterly.

 

    “It is not political, and don’t worry; Thor’s time will come,” Odin replied, turning a stern look at his eldest, who quieted immediately, looking minorly horrified at the prospect.

 

    “Then why?”

 

    “Responsibility,” Was all Odin said before returning to his meal, clearly considering the matter over.

 

    Loki sulked for the rest of the meal but said no more, realising it would be pointless. And if, at some point, he expressed his displeasure by turning everyone’s wine to vinegar, well. It’s not as though they would have expected any less.

 

****

 

    The plan, Odin discovered, was better in theory than in practise.

 

    Word had been sent to all eligible maidens to come to the palace, with the promise that one would be chosen to become Prince Loki’s wife. Oh, of course Odin had expected not as many would actually show up as they would if, say, it were Thor instead; Loki had a reputation that was largely his own doing, and he could not blame them if fewer young women were willing to put themselves directly in the Trickster’s path. Still, the number was not exactly small.

 

    What the king had not counted on was Loki refusing every. Single. One of them.

 

    One by one, they were all turned away. Oh, Loki was all politeness and charm at first, but unfailingly he found a fault with every single one before long. And as word got out of the younger Odinson’s seemingly impossible to meet standards, fewer women still began to show, which Odin figured was Loki’s plan all along. The Allfather wanted to believe his son was not so dedicated to spiting him that he would throw away the possibility of a good match and the happiness such a thing brought with it, but he knew better the kind of creature Loki was and he would not put it past him to do just that.

 

    After satisfying his anger by yelling at a criminally smug looking God of Mischief, Odin decided on a different approach; walking up to Loki, he raised his hand, feeling a flash of satisfaction and guilt both when Loki flinched minutely in response (likely thinking he would strike him, though Odin couldn’t even remember the last time he had struck either of his sons), and snatched the pendant the Trickster was wearing. It was one Thor had gifted him several decades back, depicting his chosen symbol of two snakes, and he never took it off. Holding it tightly in his fist, Odin laid a spell upon it; he opened his hand and watched as the pendant first glowed then disappeared.

 

    “I have made my decision, and you will not sway it with your trickery,” He declared to a really quite baffled Loki, “All you have succeeded in doing is that now you will not even know where she will come from.”

 

****

 

    It was a full week before Odin felt the pull of his spell, causing him to pause his speech mid-sentence, leaving the members of his council rather confused. The king frowned when the location was revealed to him. Midgard. Not the place he would have chosen, but it was in the hands of the Norns now, and if was their will, he was sure there was a reason for it. Somewhere in the realm of humans was a woman who would suit his troublesome son; all they had to do was find her. With that in mind, he adjourned the meeting, to the other men’s surprise, and sent word to have his sons meet him at the Bifrost, with implicit instructions that Thor was to do whatever was necessary to ensure his brother would be there.

 

    And so with quick instructions to Heimdall, Odin Allfather, Thor and a very disgruntled Loki were sent on their way to Midgard and, hopefully, the solution to their troubles.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the [pendant](http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y275/Manah/Wedded%20Bliss/3d40945315b4d3f7c70019dafb1f2e99--jewelry-case-viking-age.jpg) in question.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For reference; [this](http://s7.photobucket.com/user/Manah/media/Wedded%20Bliss/Edith%20Matthews.jpg.html) is Edith. Yes, I have a thing for red-heads. XD (also someone please take online dollmakers away from me i have a problem)

    Edith pushed the bangs of her fiery hair out of her amber eyes, wishing it would stay tucked under her goggles like intended when she’d pushed them up to the top of her head. In reality she wouldn’t be having this problem at all if she hadn’t been messing around in Tony’s lab and singed the part of her hair off that inspired the decision to even have bangs in the first place, but there it was. She truly wished the billionaire would just lock her out of the place like he threatened to sometimes; they both knew perfectly well she had no self-control.

 

    “Come on, kid, pick up the pace a little; we’re waiting on you here,” Tony’s voice came through the comm on her right wrist. He’d made it especially for her, since she detested earpieces of any kind, while he worked on something less obtrusive, but honestly she rather liked it.

 

    “Yeah, yeah,” She snarked back, purposefully slowing her black booted feet just long enough for someone to complain before breaking into a light sprint. She ducked behind an outcropping of rock about a hundred feet from her destination - an unassuming warehouse-like building three stories high - and peeked over the edge. “I don’t see any guards,” She spoke into her comm softly all the same, “Either the intel was right, or we got the wrong place.”

 

    “The intel’s fine,” Clint half whispered defensively, careful not to be overheard by his own targets a mile away from where she was.

 

    “Alright, geez,” Edith replied, “Sensitive.”

 

    “Matthews, I swear...” Whatever threat Clint was about to issue was cut off by a hissed curse as he was noticed, and JARVIS broke the connection to Edith as the archer began to fight.

 

    Edith somewhat successfully suppressed her sniggers then began to stand, intending to make her way to her own target, when a flash of something by her feet caught her attention. She knelt back down and reached for the object, discovering it to be a pendant depicting two snakes. _Wonder what this is doing here,_ She thought to herself then, on a whim, put it on, thinking no more of it as she continued on her mission.

 

    Sneaking came naturally to the young woman, a stark contrast to her usual bubbly personality, and she was inside the building, and the computer-filled room that was her destination, in no time. There were no personnel at all there, only a troop of robotic guards just like Clint’s intel had claimed, and she managed to evade those along her way thanks to Tony’s tech hiding her presence from their sensors. Edith plugged in the driver she’d been given, allowing JARVIS to download the data they were there for, and planted a small tracking device on one of the computers before turning and making her way out of the room, then the building.

 

    She was some fifty feet away from the building, informing Tony to go ahead with the next task, when she noticed the sky had suddenly darkened, and before she knew it a blinding pillar of light descended before her. Her exclamation of ‘What the fuck?!’ was swallowed by the roar that accompanied it, and by the time the brightness faded and she lowered her arm, having brought it up to cover her eyes on instinct, she was met with three figures (three men, one older, all armed, she noticed in a matter of moments thanks to her training), one of which looked... decidedly like he’d rather be anywhere else at the moment.

 

    “I am Odin Borson, Allfather and king of Asgard,” Odin declared as he stepped forward, “I would speak with you on a matter of great import-”

 

    “No,” Edith interrupted somewhat frantically, surprising them, “No, no, no; this is a really bad time! You can _not_ be here right now!”

 

    “Edie; what’s going on?” Tony asked, noticing she’d stopped moving.

 

    Edith raised her comm to her dark purple-lacquered lips. “Unexpected disturbance; you might want to hold the launch.”

 

    “Too late. Already sent. Get your ass outta there _now.”_

 

    Edith swore then looked up at her company. “Well, you heard the man; move!”

 

    With that she turned and ran, heading for the outcropping of rock and diving behind it, the missiles passing overhead towards the base. Odin and his sons followed soon after, figuring the woman probably knew what she was talking about, and witnessed her pulling her goggles down over her eyes and peek over the edge just as the explosives met their target. As the building was levelled Edith grinned, mesmerised by the sight of the fire and billows of smoke curling upwards.

 

    “Edie??” Tony called through the comm; and if he sounded just a _tad_ bit worried, well...

 

    “I’m alright,” Edith replied distractedly, “It’s pretty, though.”

 

    “... Yeah, okay, kid, just... sit tight; Barton’s on his way to pick you up.”

 

    “Uh-huh,” Edith mumbled, clearly not paying attention. A bit of movement caught her eye and she pressed a button on the side of her goggles, causing them to zoom in on the location. “Guys; I think something made it out.”

 

    “Hang on; I’m almost there,” Clint replied.

 

    “Nah, it’s just a bot; I got it.”

 

    “Edie, no!” Tony warned.

 

    Ignoring him, Edith reached down to one of the many pouches on her belt and grabbed a small device, about the size of her palm, pressed a button then took aim and threw it at the bot; the moment the device connected with its target, it detonated into a large ball of flame, strewing the metal remains of the bot all over the place, and Edith let out a laugh of undisguised glee, earning some rather bemused looks from the asgardians as the quinjet arrived behind them.

 

    “Dammit, kid; we talked about this!” Tony’s voice sounded through the comm, sounding more resigned that disapproving. Edith giggled and he sighed. “Just get in the jet.”

 

    Edith stood, turning to the others as she pushed her goggles up. “Look, if you still want to talk, it sure isn’t gonna happen here, so...”

 

    With a nod to the quinjet, she walked off. Odin looked at Thor, who shrugged, then at Loki, who pointedly ignored him, then followed after Edith, Thor grabbing hold of Loki’s arm and half dragging him along.

 

    As Edith walked up the ramp she threw her arms out. “Clint! My favourite dude-!” She began.

 

    “Sit,” Clint cut her off shortly.

 

    She deflated with a huff then stalked over to a seat and dropped herself into it carelessly. “Man; you can hold a grudge,” She grumbled, crossing her arms at her chest.

 

    “Kid, just let him have that; he’ll get over it eventually,” Tony spoke up through the comm.

 

    “Go to hell, Stark,” Clint replied as he took the jet to the air, though there was no real bite to his tone.

 

    “I love you, too, sweetheart.”

 

    Edith let out a wholly unlady-like snort as she pulled her legs up and crossed them under her, bringing her attention to a rip in her black leggings that her careless dive resulted in. “Aw, man; I liked these,” She lamented, poking her finger through the hole and wincing slightly as she touched the scrape underneath.

 

    “Maybe next time don’t wait so long before getting out of the blast zone,” Clint called from the cockpit.

 

    “Oh, bite me,” She retorted, earning a chuckle.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And so my mind memed at me at some point, and I couldn't not. I regret nothing. XD

    Edith turned to Odin after a while, seeming to remember what he’d been saying to her after that abrupt arrival. “So, what’s this ‘important matter’ you wanted to talk to me of all people about?”

 

    Odin glanced towards the cockpit then looked back to her. “It is a private discussion.”

 

    “Yeah, you can just ignore he’s there; we all do,” She replied half-jokingly, earning a scoff and an amused shake of the head from the archer.

 

    “All the same,” Odin said, a corner of his lips upturning the slightest bit.

 

    “Suit yourself,” Edith replied with a shrug. Her eyes were drawn to Loki, who was staring at her rather intensely, or rather, she noticed with a slight frown, at a spot somewhere below her face. “Did you lose something?” She asked rather irritably.

 

    Loki blinked and was about to retort, when he noticed that his pendant rested just barely above her cleavage, which was likely what she thought he’d been staring at, and he crossed his arms at his chest with a frown. “Don’t flatter yourself,” He snapped, “I was looking at _my_ pendant.”

 

    Edith fingered the pendant a bit and scoffed. “Can’t be that important, considering I just found it on the ground.”

 

    Loki glared at her and made to get up, but Odin stopped him with a hand on his shoulder. “Enough,” He said firmly, “We will discuss this later.”

 

    Loki sat back with a huff and narrowed his eyes at Edith, who rolled her eyes, utterly unimpressed, and took out her phone to distract herself with for the rest of the flight. Thor looked between them then at his father, clearly sceptical of the latter’s plan working out after all. Loki had rejected every single woman who had actually wanted to be his wife; how would it work out any better with this one if _that_ was their first impression of each other? But Odin seemed unconcerned, maybe even amused, at the exchange. Clearly his father was seeing something he wasn’t.

 

****

 

    When they reached Stark Tower Edith got out of the jet followed by Odin, who was flanked by Thor and a still glowering Loki, and met with Tony, who had arrived minutes before them, just outside of the doors leading in. She handed him the drive without preamble and he looked behind her at their apparent guests.

 

    “Ah, you must be the unexpected disturbance this one mentioned. Tony Stark; and you are?”

 

    “Odin Borson of Asgard; and these are my sons, Thor and Loki,” Odin replied, nodding to each prince respectively.

 

    “Asgard, huh? Never heard of it.” Tony didn’t give the king a chance to reply to that before continuing wholly unconcerned. “And your business here is...?”

 

    “Our business is with her and her alone,” Odin replied, unsure what to make of the mortal.

 

    “Yeah? Well, your business is going to have to wait, then; we saw her first.”

 

    “Dude; I’m not a lamp,” Edith protested, “Stop haggling over me.”

 

    “It’s not haggling; more like arguing over custody of the family cat,” Tony countered, ruffling her hair affectionately.

 

    Edith scoffed and swatted his hand away, smiling despite herself. “Asshole.”

 

    “You adore it,” Tony said with a wink. “Let’s go find out what’s on this, shall we?” He asked, tossing the drive into the air and catching it before turning and walking inside.

 

    Edith looked back at the asgardians and shrugged. “Hey, I work for a living.”

 

    With that, she followed Tony. They walked along the halls silently, Thor taking in their surroundings curiously, having not seen midgardian architecture in several centuries. Reaching the meeting room, Edith chose a seat near the far end of the table while Tony went up to the other end of the room where Steve stood to plug in the driver. Steve eyed the new additions with a confused look as they sat but Edith waved him off and they proceeded with the debriefing once Clint joined them. Eventually the conversation turned to an enemy operative that Steve had captured, and the fact that he wasn’t talking, and Edith perked up in her seat and raised her hand as though she were in class.

 

    “Ooh! Maybe I could-” She began, practically climbing on the table as she rested her other forearm on it and leaned forward.

 

    “No!” All three of the Avengers interrupted at the same time, with various degrees of alarm, taking the asgardians aback.

 

    “You guys never let me have any fun,” Edith huffed with a pout, slumping back in her seat.

 

    “Edie; your idea of fun is illegal in most countries,” Tony countered.

 

    “Not... _all_ of it...”

 

    “You are literally banned from setting foot in Georgia for life,” Clint deadpanned.

 

    “...This is true,” Edith conceded with a nod.

 

    “We’ll just... wait for Nat to get back,” Steve said.

 

    “You know, it’s kinda hurtful that you guys trust an assassin with this more than me,” Edith mock-pouted.

 

    “That’s because the assassin doesn’t come with the risk of accidentally blowing up the prisoner,” Tony retorted unimpressed.

 

    “It was one time!” Edith cried, throwing her hands up.

 

    “You _what??”_ Thor blurted incredulously.

 

    Edith looked towards him, noting out of the corner of her eye how Loki was looking at her as though seeing her for the first time while Odin looked mildly concerned, and grinned somewhat abashedly. “It was a calculated risk,” She replied then shrugged a bit helplessly, “I am not good at math.”

 

    “How...?” Thor began then thought better of it and shook his head.

 

    “It’s a talent,” Edith chimed happily with a smile.

 

    “And that ‘talent’ is why nobody wants you on the 63rd floor,” Tony added, and while Edith’s smile didn’t falter she did blush at the reminder.

 

    “Dare we ask?” Odin spoke up.

 

    “Let’s just say she’s a menace and never leave her near anything flammable, and just leave it at that,” Steve quickly replied, not wanting to give Tony the chance to go off on a tangent about that incident _again._

 

    “Really?” Loki said thoughtfully.

 

    “Don’t even think about it,” Odin warned. Loki raised his hands in surrender with an entirely too innocent expression and Odin narrowed his eye at him, not believing it for a moment. He sighed and turned to Edith. “If your business here is concluded; I would prefer to speak with you about why we are here sooner than later.”

 

    Edith turned to Tony and Steve, and the latter shrugged. “Not much else we can do here until Nat gets back.”

 

****

 

    Edith stared back at Odin blankly for a long moment after he finished speaking, then blinked, opened her mouth and closed it again, frowned, looked down and furrowed her brows a bit, looked back up at him and opened her mouth and closed it again, and finally shook her head sharply.

 

    “What?” She finally asked.

 

    Odin sighed somewhat impatiently. “I enchanted the pendant you found to-”

 

    “No, I got that part,” She interrupted, to his consternation, “I just... _what?”_

 

    “I realise this is sudden-”

 

    “Now, whatever gave you _that_ idea?”

 

    “But if you let me-”

 

    “You just show up out of nowhere - a complete stranger -”

 

    “Child, if you would just-”

 

    “And expect me just drop everything-”

 

    “Listen to me, I will-”

 

    “To _marry_ another complete stranger-”

 

    “Enough!” Odin half roared, causing Edith to take a step back with a start and reach down to one of her belt pouches.

 

    “Would you like me to alert the others, Miss Matthews?” JARVIS’ voice sounded suddenly in the room, surprising the asgardians. In truth, Edith knew the others had already been alerted; the question was in fact intended to let her know they were on their way.

 

    “Thanks, JARVIS, but I’m good,” She replied honestly, letting her hand drop back to her side.

 

    “I apologise; it was not my intention to frighten you,” Odin said after a moment. Edith gave him a sceptical look and he sighed. “Perhaps we could start over?”

 

    Edith narrowed her eyes at the king, staring for a long moment, then shrugged. “Don’t see what good it’ll do, but sure.”


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Links to the songs in this chapter: 'Sempre Libera' [[audio]](https://youtu.be/rQOXWFU6tNw?t=7m7s) [[lyrics]](https://www.thoughtco.com/sempre-libera-lyrics-and-text-translation-724071) and 'Quando rapito in estasi' [[audio]](https://youtu.be/1yROvf8KMLg) [[lyrics]](http://www.aria-database.com/translations/lucia06_quando.txt)

    Odin sat frowning at the door after Edith left. Their second attempt at a discussion hadn’t gone much better, but at least she’d heard him out, more or less; still, this... was not what he had hoped. _She_ was not what he had hoped. From what he’d observed of her so far, he had little doubt she and Loki would get along if they gave themselves the chance, but as much as that was good news it didn’t really solve this new complication.

 

    “You thought this would be easier, didn’t you?” Loki spoke up after a while, looking far too pleased with how things had gone.

 

    Beside him Thor shifted slightly. “Father, I am not so sure this is a good idea; she doesn’t exactly seem... stable.”

 

    Odin’s frown deepened; that was exactly his concern, though he didn’t want to admit so aloud and give his youngest the satisfaction of hearing it. The point of finding Loki a wife was to temper his chaotic nature, but how in the Nine was that to happen when the woman in question was far from steady herself?

 

    “Oh, I don’t know; I quite think I might like to get to know her better,” Loki replied lightly, snapping the king out of his thoughts. He had a feeling that would happen. Loki chuckled. “I don’t know why you’re so surprised, father,” He said amusedly, “You wanted to find my match; what exactly were you expecting that to be?”

 

    And thus did Odin Borson come to regret the wording of his thoughts when he cast the spell that led them to this.

 

****

 

    “He wants you to _what?”_ Steve asked incredulously after Edith had finished explaining Odin’s... _request_ in the common room, which the asgardians were very much _not_ allowed access to.

 

    “Yeah, that was pretty much my reaction, too,” Edith replied.

 

    “What’d you say?” Clint asked.

 

    “No, obviously!”

 

    “And yet, they’re not leaving,” Tony pointed out.

 

    “I know! I turned him down - twice, I might add - and even tried to give this stupid pendant back, but it won’t come off!”

 

    “What do you mean, it won’t come off?” Steve asked.

 

    “I mean _it won’t come off.”_ She reached up and tried to remove the pendant, to no avail. “See?”

 

    “That’s... that’s not right.”

 

    “Well, thank you, that’s very helpful.”

 

    Steve raised his hands placatingly and she huffed and walked over to one of the couches, dropping onto it carelessly. Tony walked over and nudged her head out of the way so he could sit before pulling her back down.

 

    “He tell you why it won’t come off?”

 

    “Put a spell on it that would bond with whoever found it. Something about being ‘a good match’ for his son, whatever the hell that means. Basically, I’m stuck with it,” She grumbled.

 

    There was silence for a while as they all processed the information. They were all very clearly concerned about the whole thing. Who just shows up out of nowhere and makes that kind of decision for anyone? They were also worried about what Natasha would have to say (and do) about it when she was informed; the woman was fiercely protective of Edith on a level only matched by Tony, but her methods for dealing with threats to the younger woman’s safety were... far more concerning. With a shared glance they wordlessly decided it was probably best not to tell her just yet.

 

    Finally, Tony broke the heavy silence in a way only he could. “... ‘A good match’, huh? Well, either Daddy Dearest screwed up, or the universe _really_ hates that guy.”

 

    The punch to the stomach, he decided, was as worth is as it was well deserved.

 

****

 

    Natasha returned to the tower not long after and, after a quick debrief of her own mission, went to interrogate the prisoner, successfully extracting the information they needed with an ease Edith envied. The Russian had taught her many things in the time they’d known each other, but that was not one of them, claiming she was better off not knowing such things. In any case, they had the location of their enemies’ base and, after a quick debate, Edith was back aboard the quinjet with Clint. When they arrived, Edith looked over to a monitor on the side as Clint opened the doors, waiting for her orders fidgeting slightly with restless energy.

 

    On the other side Steve looked at Tony, who nodded, and then looked back to her. “Alright, kid; give ’em hell.”

 

    Edith looked at the monitor with wide eyes. “Mayhem?” She asked hopefully.

 

    Steve smiled indulgently and nodded. “Mayhem.”

 

    Edith squealed with glee, practically vibrating with excitement, then pulled her goggles down over her eyes, rushed over to the doors and leapt off the jet with no hesitation whatsoever. Clint chuckled as he steered the quinjet away, almost feeling sorry for those on the ground. Almost.

 

    Back in the tower, Thor, who along with his father and brother had been allowed into the room, turned to the others, bemused by Edith’s reaction to her orders but still concerned. “You will simply let her go in there by herself?”

 

    “Trust me, she’ll be fine; it’s the other guys you gotta worry about,” Tony replied amusedly, “She’s got a lot of frustration to let loose.”

 

    Edith practically skipped through the building, throwing handfuls of small spheres that exploded on impact with the force of armour-piercing bullets at anyone who stood in her way. Doors were blown off their hinges with abandon as she made her way to the centre of the base, laughing gleefully and singing ‘Sempre Libera’ as she went.

 

    Tony tried and mostly succeeded in not laughing at the expression on Thor’s face as they listened to Edith through the comm link. “Not bad, huh?” He commented, “Her mother insisted.”

 

    “And what does her mother think about her... other activities?” Odin asked, doubting the wisdom of his plan more with every passing moment, all the while well aware of how much more interested Loki was becoming in contrast.

 

    “Probably not much, considering she’s been dead for six years,” Tony shrugged, earning a disapproving look from Steve that he ignored. He was, after all, saying exactly what Edith would if the question had been posed to her.

 

    Edith reached the room she was looking for a quarter of the way through a rendition of ‘Quando rapito in estasi’, finishing the aria as she placed her explosives with a flourish. Satisfied, she turned and bolted back the way she came, jumping over the debris and corpses her journey there had resulted in as necessary. A few feet away from the entrance she brought her comm up to her lips.

 

    “Clint, I’m ready for pick up; we’ve got five minutes to be out of here.”

 

    “Five minutes?? Dammit, Matthews!” Clint replied exasperatedly.

 

    “I’m sorry, I was too excited to change the settings!” Edith explained in a giddy rush, earning a long suffering sigh.

 

    The quinjet arrived just as she burst through the door and she wasted no time in running inside, missing the spray of bullets fired her way from the enemies arriving to that side of the building mostly by sheer luck. The moment she’d held onto something, Clint took off, and not a moment too soon as an explosion went off, swallowing the building and immediate area in a tremendous ball of flame. Edith turned to watch, a wholly ecstatic expression lighting up her face.

 

    “Kid; you are something else,” She heard Tony say fondly through the monitor beside her and giggled.


	5. Chapter 5

    She was humming something when she walked out of her bathroom holding the towel wrapped around her closed with one hand as Loki silently stepped into the room, having snuck away while the others argued over the legality of Odin’s plan.

 

    “You’re not quite what I expected,” He said, startling her, leaning against the wall by the door.

 

    “You know, there’s this thing called ‘knocking’,” Edith snapped.

 

    Loki huffed a laugh. “You might wish to get used to the absence of it, considering we’ll be sharing living space soon.”

 

    “This again,” Edith muttered with a roll of her eyes. “You don’t get to make that kind of choice for me. No one does. And the sooner you all figure that out; the longer you’ll live.”

 

    “I’m not the one you need to convince, my dear,” Loki replied amusedly, “And I must say, your odds of success aren’t very good; the Allfather does hate to admit he made a mistake.”

 

    “That’s not my problem.”

 

    “Oh, it very much is, and mine as well.” He leaned forward a bit. “The question is: What are we going to do about it?”

 

    “Well, right now _you_ are going to get out so that _I_ can get dressed.”

 

    “Hmm, no; I don’t think I want to do that,” Loki replied with a smirk, wanting to see what she would do.

 

    Edith stared at him for a long moment then walked over to her dresser, opened one of the top drawers and pulled out a flare gun. She turned around and aimed it at him. “You have exactly ten seconds to be on the other side of that door, or I will set you on fire.”

 

    The smirk widened to a grin. “You are not at all what I expected.”

 

    With that he left the room, leaving her slightly confused.

 

****

 

    He was standing outside the door when Edith opened it after throwing on a light green tank top and black sweat pants, and she walked right into him, falling back a step from the impact. She looked up at him to be met with a really quite amused expression.

 

    “You said you wanted me on the other side of the door,” He said cheekily by way of explanation.

 

    Edith huffed a laugh, shaking her head incredulously. She placed her hands on her hips and tilted her head to the side a bit. “What exactly were you expecting?”

 

    “Not you,” Loki replied. “I’m not an idiot; it didn’t take much to find out just why father was suddenly so adamant that I get married. He seems to be under the impression it will ‘tame’ me. Naturally, I assumed whatever unfortunate woman he would pick would be quiet and reserved; a perfect lady.”

 

    Edith tried to hold back her laughter. She really did. It didn’t quite work out.

 

    “‘Quiet and reserved’? _Me?”_ She somehow managed, clutching onto the doorframe to keep herself upright.

 

    “Yes, well; clearly I was wrong,” Loki half muttered, crossing his arms at his chest.

 

    They heard the elevator doors open and looked over to see Natasha stepping into the hall, and she did not look well pleased. Her eyes narrowed when she saw Loki and she marched over to them, getting in between him and Edith.

 

    “Give me one good reason not to rip your throat out,” The spy told him with icy calmness.

 

    Loki arched an eyebrow. “You would be dead before you could even touch me,” He replied smoothly.

 

    Natasha narrowed her eyes at him and he met her gaze easily. After a few long moments, she smirked and held out her hand to him. “I’m Natasha; and I got the impression you want this about as much as she does.”

 

    Loki stared at her hand for a moment then shook it. “Probably less, since I’ve had to endure two months of failed attempts before this.”

 

    “Well, your father’s pretty determined to go through with this despite the fact that he doesn’t really want to; so whatever we’re going to do, we better do it fast.”

 

    “Wait; he doesn’t even want to do this?” Edith asked incredulously.

 

    “Of course not; you’re not even close to what he wanted in my future wife,” Loki replied.

 

    “Then why keep pushing for it?”

 

    “I told you; he hates to admit he was wrong.”

 

    “Even if it gets him stuck with a daughter-in-law he doesn’t even like?” Loki shrugged and Edith shook her head. “Wow. And people say _I’m_ crazy.”

 

    “You _are,_ maya' zvezda', but we love you anyway,” Natasha said with a half-smile, earning a grin from Edith.

 

****

 

    In the end they had gotten nowhere with the king and more than one argument had threatened to get out of hand, which had been the other reason Natasha had left the room once she’d noticed that Loki had gone. When the three entered the room, the tension in the air was palpable and the silence was more than a little awkward.

 

    And so Edith did the first thing that made sense.

 

    And tripped the fire alarm.

 

    Loki watched amusedly as the chaos unfolded, not much caring that he hadn’t been the cause of it this time. He looked over at Edith to find her watching the scene before them seemingly just as amused and took the opportunity to really look at her; he’d been too busy trying to find a way to avoid his impending nuptials to really notice her, but she really was quite... interesting. He thought back to the unrestrained glee he’d witnessed, the way it light up her face, and what had brought it about. He could have quite a bit of fun with someone like that, indeed.

 

    Perhaps she was a bit insane. But, really, who else would be able to survive the God of Mischief?

 

    Edith suddenly looked at him, feeling eyes on her, and he hastily looked away, pretending he’d been watching the others all along. She narrowed her eyes but ultimately looked away none the wiser to his inspection of her.

 

    Once things calmed down - and Edith received a scolding for messing with the fire alarm (again) that she somewhat listened to - they all agreed to take a bit of a break from arguing and maybe actually have dinner sometime before midnight for a change; pizza was ordered, since nobody actually wanted to cook, and they convened in the common room to eat, none of them quite sure how concerned they should be about the fact that Edith, Natasha and Loki seemed to be conspiring in their corner.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "maya' zvezda'" means 'my star'. (Thanks so much for the correction!)


	6. Chapter 6

    Edith was humming contentedly when Loki wandered into the kitchen the next morning, standing at the counter stirring some sugar into a cup of coffee while Steve was busy at the stove making them breakfast, a smile on his face as he listened to her. She glanced at him then grabbed another cup, poured some coffee into it and offered it to him. Loki took the cup and stared at the contents curiously before taking a cautious sip, immediately grimacing at the bitterness. Edith broke into giggles and he glared at her and set the cup down on the counter somewhat forcefully, getting Steve’s attention.

 

    “Really, Edie?” He said disapprovingly, having a pretty good idea what happened.

 

    “Sorry; couldn’t resist.” She added some sugar and cream into the cup and stirred it then offered it again. “Try it now.”

 

    “I think once was quite enough,” Loki replied coolly.

 

    “No, really; it’s good!”

 

    Loki regarded her suspiciously for a moment then took the cup again despite himself and took a sip, mentally bracing himself for whatever unpleasantness would come; instead he let out a slight surprised hum and took a larger sip. Edith grinned and returned to her own cup while Steve shook his head with a quiet chuckle, wondering how long it would take for Loki to realise that that was basically what passed for flirting with her even as he wondered what exactly had been discussed the previous night that she was doing it at all. Then again, he mused, it didn’t really take much to change Edith’s mind about a person once she found something she liked enough, regardless of first impressions. Evidently, she’d found something.

 

    There was a peaceful silence while they ate, which was broken by JARVIS informing Steve he was needed in the lobby; the soldier sighed and got up, taking his plate to the sink before leaving the room. The others slowly came in in various states of wakefulness and got their food, taking their usual seats while Odin and Thor occupied the ones remaining. The silence lost some of its peacefulness, but the meal thankfully passed without incident, despite the look Natasha gave Thor we he made the mistake of trying to start a conversation with her. Clearly he’d not kept how the previous day’s conversation had gone in mind.

 

    Once the food was gone, Odin asked to speak with Edith in private, to which she agreed after a moment’s thought. She led the way to another room and, after asking JARVIS to keep any eavesdroppers (i.e. Tony) out of the conversation, gestured for the king to speak his piece.

 

    “Perhaps I was too hasty in this,” Odin said, earning an amused snort he chose to ignore. “I propose this: Return to Asgard with us and see for yourself what life would await you. Give it a chance, and if you should wish to return to this,” He gestured vaguely around them, “I will escort you back myself.”

 

    Edith tilted her head to the side and regarded the king thoughtfully for a moment. “You really want to make this work at all costs, don’t you?” Odin did not reply. She chewed on her bottom lip for a moment, weighting her options, then let out a soft sigh. “Alright. I’ll give it a shot.” She smirked. “But remember you asked for this; you don’t get to complain if you don’t like it.”

 

    “Noted,” Odin replied, already feeling that he would be regretting his decision in the future.

 

****

 

    The other weren’t very pleased by the news, Tony in particular was quite vocal about it, but ultimately accepted that it was Edith’s decision to make. Natasha took her aside for a moment, wanting to be absolutely sure the younger woman had in fact made the choice on her own, and Edith assured her that she had and to keep in mind what they’d talked about the previous night, satisfying the spy. Steve voiced his objections as he was brought up to speed upon returning, but otherwise did not interfere, trusting that Edith sort of knew what she was doing.

 

    Loki leaned on the doorframe of Edith’s room as she got a few things together, arms crossed at his chest. “I do hope you have a plan, because it would be quite disappointing if you let yourself be cowed by my father so easily.”

 

    Edith didn’t reply, simply went into her bathroom to change. After a while she walked out, dressed in a blue tank top and a short black skirt and pulling on a pair of long fingerless black gloves; she sat on her bed and put on a pair of go-go boots the same shade of blue as her shirt, looking up as she heard the elevator. Loki looked over as Natasha stepped out and headed for the room, handing Edith her belt, fully stocked with her weaponry, and her goggles. Edith stood and put them on then went over to her dresser and grabbed her makeup bag, taking out her blue lipstick and applying some, and only then looked over at Loki.

 

    “Look, we both know he’s not going to let this go so easily, and nothing we do here is going to matter much,” She said then smirked, “So what better way to convince him to change his mind than to wreak havoc somewhere he _can’t_ ignore?”

 

    Slowly a mischievous grin spread on Loki’s face. “Oh, I like the way you think.”

 

****

 

    They met up on the roof, as Tony was more than a little reluctant to let the Allfather call for the Bifrost anywhere else after Edith told him about what she’d seen it involved the previous day, and after a quick good-bye and a promise she’d take care of herself by any means necessary, she joined the asgardians.

 

    “There’s really no need to bring anything with you; we’re more than capable of providing whatever you could require,” Thor commented, eyeing the bag Edith carried slung over her shoulder curiously, causing Loki to roll his eyes at his brother’s obliviousness.

 

    “Well, excuse _me_ for wanting to have a few familiar things,” Edith replied sarcastically.

 

    “Ah. Of course; my apologies.”

 

    “Honestly, brother, will you _ever_ learn to think before you speak?”

 

    “Enough,” Odin interrupted the beginning of Thor’s retort tiredly and looked upwards. “Heimdall; when you’re ready.”

 

    A moment later, the bright flash of the Bridge touched down upon the roof, taking them away from the realm of mortals.


	7. Chapter 7

    Edith stumbled when they reached the observatory in Asgard and would have fallen forward if not for Loki’s hand shooting out and grabbing the back of her shirt to steady her before he was fully aware of the action. She muttered her thanks and he smiled slightly in response before leading her outside the dome after Thor while Odin spoke to Heimdall. Edith looked down at the bridge as she stepped onto it, curiously watching the colours shift.

 

    “Okay; that’s pretty cool.” The princes chuckled. “... Wonder what it would look like on fire.”

 

    “What is it with you and fire?” Thor asked bemusedly.

 

    Edith shrugged. “Hell if I know; it’s just fun.”

 

    “I find it hard to argue that,” Loki chimed.

 

    “You are not helping.”

 

    “Your point?”

 

   Thor sighed frustratedly and walked over to his waiting horse, wondering why he even bothered. Edith met Loki’s gaze and he winked, causing her to laugh, then followed him to the other horses, watching as both brothers mounted theirs.

 

    “Okay, full disclosure; I’ve been on one of these exactly one time in my life, and it ended with a broken arm and a _really_ pissed off mother,” Edith said as she eyed the large animals warily.

 

    “Then you will ride with Loki,” Odin said as he joined them, mounting his own horse and giving Loki a warning look before he could get a word of complaint out.

 

    Loki huffed in annoyance and held out his hand to Edith, helping her up to sit behind him. He barely gave her time to settle before urging the animal forward, startling her and causing her to wrap her arms around his waist as tightly as she could with a slight yelp. Odin sighed, wondering if perhaps he should have had the poor girl ride with Thor instead. Oh, well; what was done was done.

 

    Loki felt Edith’s grip relax slightly - but only slightly - after a while, and looked over his shoulder to see her taking in the scenery interestedly. He found himself smiling a bit at the sight and shook his head sharply, turning his gaze forward again and urging his horse to move faster. The sooner they reached the palace, the sooner he could put some distance between himself and his _very much unwanted_ betrothed, he reminded himself firmly.

 

****

 

    Frigga was waiting for them when they walked into the palace, eyes searching until they found Edith, and she smiled widely and walked towards her, taking both the younger woman’s hands in hers. “Welcome, my dear; let me have a look at you!”

 

    “Uhh... hi?” Edith said bemusedly, trying unsuccessfully to pull her hands back.

 

    “And ‘hello’ to you as well, mother,” Loki said sarcastically.

 

    The queen breathed a laugh then released Edith’s hands, much to her relief, in order to greet her sons and husband. Once proper introductions were made Frigga was quick to pull Edith along with her, intending to take her to her temporary chambers, with Loki following along, either to make sure his mother didn’t overdo it or amuse himself by witnessing her fussing over someone else for a change; he wasn’t quite sure yet.

 

    “I took the liberty of having a few dresses made for you,” Frigga spoke quite excitedly as they walked through the halls, “Though of course you may speak to the seamstresses if you’d like anything specific. And we should discuss what activities you’d be interested in to occupy your free time. You are, of course, more than welcome to join me weaving - oh, do you know how to weave?” She didn’t give Edith the chance to reply before shaking her head slightly. “No matter; I would be happy to teach you if you are so inclined. Or perhaps you could join me in the gardens; I would welcome a helping hand. Or there is-”

 

    “ _Whoa;_ woman, slow the hell down!” Edith cried out at last, pulling her arm free and staring at the queen with wide eyes. Frigga was surprised by the outburst while Loki was clearly holding back laughter. “You, uh... always wanted a daughter, huh?”

 

    Frigga let out a slight embarrassed laugh. “I suppose I have,” She admitted. “I’m sorry; I didn’t mean to overwhelm you.”

 

    “It’s fine; just, uh, take it easy. It’s a bit soon to start making any plans.”

 

    “Whatever do you mean?”

 

    “I mean I haven’t agreed to anything yet.”

 

    “Oh. I see,” Frigga said, her demeanour changing in moments to a stillness that Loki eyed warily, knowing full well it meant that she was not pleased. “May I ask why not?”

 

    “You mean besides the fact that I barely know your son and have a life of my own back home that I am very fond of?” Edith asked back with no small amount of sarcasm and Loki took a cautious step away from his mother. “Because aside from that...”

 

    “Then why did you come?”

 

    “Mainly because I knew your husband wasn’t going to leave me alone otherwise, honestly.”

 

    Frigga hummed noncommittally. “I suppose it is not a complete refusal.”

 

    Edith threw her head back with a sigh before looking the queen straight in the eyes. “Look, I get it; you were all excited and this,” She gestured vaguely at herself, “Isn’t what you were expecting. But none of this is something I expected either. Until yesterday, I was perfectly happy living in my tower full of misfits and blowing stuff up, occasionally with permission; I’m not going to just walk away from that because some stranger who doesn’t even like me said so. So, sorry for disappointing you, but I’m not sorry.”

 

    Frigga mulled her words over for a moment. “Fair enough,” She said at length. “I suppose this has all been rather sudden. But at least promise me you will give this a real chance. The _both_ of you,” She added, looking straight at Loki. He blinked then looked away guiltily. Frigga sighed and walked up to him, placing her hand on his cheek and turning his face back to hers. “Never mind your father; I only want you to be happy.”

 

    “I _would_ be happy, if this were actually our choice,” He replied frustratedly.

 

    “I know, dear, but at least _try_ to make the best of it. It might not be as bad as you’re telling yourselves it is.” She looked at Edith. “You could very well be happy together.”

 

    “I mean, that’s only half my issue with it, but sure,” Edith mumbled mostly to herself then shifted a bit on her feet. “Can I have a candle?”

 

    “A... candle?” Frigga asked, confused by the sudden change in topic.

 

    “I really need to set something on fire, and I doubt you’d like it if it were the curtains or something,” Edith replied with a slight frown.

 

    “I... see. Then I suppose we’ll get you a candle,” Frigga said with a slight bemused smile, beginning to understand why Odin would not have a very high opinion of her.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here, have some backstory that took me three freaking hours to write. XD

    “Here’s an idea: From now on, _you_ talk to Frigga,” Edith suggested once the queen had left them in her room, having been called away for some matter that required her immediate attention, “She’s your mother; she’s not going to hate _you.”_

 

    Loki breathed a laugh. “She doesn’t hate you. She doesn’t much like you so far, but she doesn’t _hate_ you.”

 

    “Why is everyone so shocked I’m not going along with your dad’s plans? I’m a person, not an object you can just pick up and take home with you!”

 

    “I think they just expected you to be honoured,” Loki replied, walking over to the bed and sitting down, propping himself up on his hands, “You would, after all, be marrying into the royal family. Do you know how many would kill to be in your place?”

 

    “Well, they can have it!” Edith cried, sitting next to him and letting herself fall onto her back.

 

    “I’d rather they didn’t; you at least I can plan a way out of this with.”

 

    Edith let out a heavy sigh. “Sorry; it’s just... frustrating. I’ve always been able to do what I wanted, more or less within reason.”

 

    “Even when your mother insisted on singing lessons?” Loki asked, earning a surprised look he shrugged at. “Your friend, Tony Stark, mentioned it.”

 

    “Oh.” That made sense. “I _like_ singing, actually; the insistence was because I had the worst stage fright and she wanted me to get past it if I could. And I did.”

 

    He hummed in understanding. “For what it’s worth; you have a lovely voice.”

 

    “I know,” She replied simply.

 

    “And the humility to go with it, I see,” He said amusedly.

 

    She grinned. “Modesty’s never been one of my virtues; no sense in pretending it is.”

 

    Loki laughed. “In that case; you and I will get along wonderfully.”

 

****

 

    Frigga walked up to the balcony of her and her husband’s hall where he stood, looking out at the view of the city it offered. “You have regrets.”

 

    It was not a question. He sighed and nodded all the same.

 

    “You wanted his match; we don’t get to decide what that is.”

 

    “I should have just chosen someone for him myself.”

 

    Frigga chuckled lightly. “And then _he_ would have made you regret it.”

 

    “She will not calm him.”

 

    “No; likely not.” She placed a hand on Odin’s shoulder. “But she _will_ make him happy, and _that_ just might.”

 

    Odin huffed. “They would have to cease planning on ways to escape the wedding day for that.”

 

    “Perhaps...” Frigga said with a knowing smile.

 

    Odin gave her a questioning look but she did not elaborate, merely kissed his cheek and walked away, leaving him wondering just what she knew.

 

****

 

    Had things gone the way he’d intended, there would have been a feast to welcome the future princess; as it was, Odin thought it might be best for dinner to be a private affair, at least until he could be sure it wouldn’t end in total disaster. Judging by the disappointed expression on Loki’s face that he attempted to disguise as boredom, the king decided he’d made the right call. At his son’s side, Edith looked about the room curiously before the food was brought out, which she dove into with gusto after a taste test proved it favourable.

 

    “Well, you’re certainly not lacking for appetite,” Thor laughed as he watched her.

 

    Edith paused, swallowed her mouthful, and shrugged. “After you’ve been stuck behind enemy lines for a few days; you learn not to let a chance to eat go to waste.”

 

    “Oh? You are a warrior?” Frigga asked interestedly.

 

    “Kind of? I mean, I do know how to fight, but mostly I just make things blow up, really.”

 

    “Quite gladly, mind,” Loki added.

 

    “We all have our hobbies,” Edith joked.

 

    “Some hobby,” Thor commented. “But you say you’ve been captured by enemies?”

 

    She shook her head. “Not really ‘captured’, per se. I went into this lab - they were testing a biological weapon on a town nearby - and I was supposed to shut it down. It was going _great;_ until some _idiot_ in an aircraft got themself shot down on the only way out of the place in some dumbass attempt to do my freaking job,” She explained irritably. “I spent four days constantly moving to avoid detection until Natasha could come get me out.”

 

    “Why not just blow your way out?” Thor asked.

 

    “Because this was before I was trusted with that kind of firepower,” Edith replied with a roll of her eyes. She thought for a moment. “Actually, after that Tony gave me a whole bunch of new toys, so that was probably why.”

 

    “These people; they are your family?” Frigga asked.

 

    “In a way,” Edith replied with a fond smile. “I’ve known Tony since I was kid. My mom’s company did a lot of business with his, and he took over as my legal guardian when she died, since I was technically underage. And Nat took one look at me and decided I needed to learn how to fight, ostensibly for self-defence, but I’m pretty sure she knew I was going to end up following them into battle eventually.”

 

    “And what of your father?”

 

    “Never met him; he died before I was born.”

 

    “My sympathies. You’ve no other family, then?”

 

   Edith shrugged. “Not as far as I know. At least not on my dad’s side; I still have relatives on my mom’s side, but she wasn’t on good terms with them, so I never met them, and nobody reached out to me after she died so I just left it at that.”

 

    “Fair enough.”

 

    The rest of the meal passed with little in the way of conversation and afterwards Loki escorted Edith back to her room to retire for the night at his parents’ ‘suggestion’. Part of him was annoyed that they were so obviously trying to change his mind about their betrothal by making them spend time together, but he couldn’t say he disliked her company altogether. In fact, he rather enjoyed it so far...

 

    _... Damn,_ He thought as the thought struck him, faltering in his steps slightly.


	9. Chapter 9

    Edith had noticed his change in demeanour, made all the more obvious by the somewhat stiff way he bid her good night when they reached her door, but she made no comment on it, preferring to worry about it in the morning when she was less tired if necessary. Instead she went into her bathroom, intending to make use of the large tub she had only glimpsed at before; it was thankfully already full of perfectly heated water, sparing her from having to figure out how to work the thing, and she slipped out of her clothes and stepped in, letting out a pleased moan as she sunk into the water.

 

    She dozed off after a long while, jolting awake as water got into her mouth and deciding as she spluttered a bit that it was past time she got out and went to bed; making quick work of actually cleaning herself, she stepped out of the tub and dried off. Dressed in a soft, pale cream nightgown she found on her bed, she burrowed under the covers and settled in for the night.

 

    An hour later she sat up with an annoyed huff.

 

    After a bit of deliberation she got out of bed, dragging a blanket and pillow with her, and lit the large fireplace on the other side of the room before settling down in front of it. As she watched the flames dance, she thought about everything that had happened in the course of the day; she and Loki had discussed much after Frigga had left them, and not all of it related to avoiding their marriage, which had rather surprised her since he’d been so adamant about it back on Earth. It hadn’t really been unpleasant, though; she found she rather liked him, in fact. He was interesting and she liked interesting people. With those thoughts, she finally drifted off to sleep.

 

****

 

    He didn’t even glance her way when she joined him and Frigga for breakfast per the queen’s invitation, and she raised an eyebrow but said nothing as she sat. Frigga frowned a bit, realising she’d pushed too far too quickly. Nothing she could do now but to move forward and hope the situation could still be saved.

 

    With that in mind, the queen attempted to start a conversation. “Good morning, Edith; did you sleep well?”

 

    Edith shrugged as she gave her food an exploratory poke. “I guess?”

 

    “Was the bed not to your liking?”

 

    “Didn’t use it.”

 

    “What? Why ever not?” Frigga asked confusedly.

 

    “I couldn’t sleep, so I went over to stare at the fire; that always puts me right out.”

 

    “You have quite a liking for fire, don’t you?” Frigga commented, remembering how happy the young woman had been once given the promised candle the previous day.

 

    “To a degree most people find excessive, but it works out,” Edith replied with a grin. “Well, most of the time, anyway.”

 

    Frigga chuckled then glanced at her son, but he was still steadfastly ignoring both of them, causing her to frown a bit once more. “Loki, dear, I know this isn’t ideal, but-”

 

    “‘Not ideal’,” Loki scoffed, “Interesting way of looking at your blatant disregard for my thoughts and feelings on the matter. I expect that from father, but I had hoped you at least would actually give a damn!”

 

    “We only want what is best for you,” Frigga tried.

 

    “And if it completely derails a couple of lives in the process; who cares, huh?” Edith interjected coolly, causing Loki to finally look at her somewhat surprised, momentarily forgetting he’d decided to ignore her.

 

    “It’s not that we don’t care-”

 

    “It’s that you don’t care enough,” Loki cut in.

 

    Frigga made to reply but ultimately held her tongue and sighed instead. They turned back to the food, passing the rest of the meal in silence. Loki stood and left immediately after finishing; Edith thought for a moment then got up and followed him, practically running to catch up to his long strides. He glanced at her when she reached him and sighed irritably.

 

    “Any particular reason you’re mad at _me_ now? Because last I checked; we have the same problem.”

 

    Loki scoffed. “We do not.”

 

    “You know what? You’re right; no, we don’t,” Edith snapped, moving to block his path and glaring up at him, “You’re not the one expected to give up literally everything and everyone you’ve ever known. If this happens; at least you get to stay home!”

 

    “Yes, such a terrible fate, to live in luxury for the rest of your days,” Loki replied sarcastically.

 

    “Oh, please. I may not be royalty, but I was plenty well off with both my mother and now Tony. This,” She gestured around them, “Is not that much of an upgrade. But you just go ahead and throw your tantrum; in the meantime, I’ll go and think about doing something actually productive.”

 

     With that she turned and stormed off, leaving him staring after her slightly shocked. His first instinct was to be angry at her for disrespecting him that way, but before the feeling could fully develop he thought about what she’d said, realising only reluctantly that she in fact had a point; he’d been too busy thinking about his own wants that he’d failed to see just how much more was at stake for her. Once that came to mind, he began to feel something he was not accustomed to: Guilt.

 

    It was not a comfortable feeling. In fact, he decided; he didn’t care for it at all. Taking a deep breath, he began walking after her.

 

****

 

    She almost shut the door to her room in his face, not having realised he’d followed her, and considered apologising for all of two seconds before deciding she was too mad at him to do so; she simply turned and walked into the room, leaving him to close the door behind him after coming in. She went over to the chest at the foot of the bed where she’d left her bag and began looking through it. He walked over to stand next to her, watching her.

 

    “I’m... sorry,” He spoke softly at length.

 

    She made no move to acknowledge him for a long while then pulled out a small black drawstring pouch and held it out to him; once he took it, she looked up at him and gave him a small smile.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Quick, while I still have power! *tosses chapter*
> 
>  
> 
> So my brain completely skipped right over this chapter, and I only realised as I was going to submit the one I did write, which is why this took longer than the others so far. My brain’s an asshole sometimes. XD Turned out longer than I expected, though, so there’s that.

    “What do these do, exactly?” Loki asked as they walked through the halls, rolling the little black sphere in his hand between his fingers.

 

    Edith had asked him if there was anywhere in the palace they could go to be alone that was also out of the way, preferably an unused room, and he decided that one of the lower levels of the old dungeons would do. Nobody ever went in there anymore; in fact, he wasn’t quite sure why they hadn’t been repurposed or removed. It worked to his advantage, though, as he’d spent much time there doing things he shouldn’t.

 

    “Well, my guys in R&D came up with these in case I ever found myself trapped in a room with no exits and no immediate hope of rescue,” Edith explained, “Basically, it melts walls; something about disturbing the molecules or something, the science isn’t really my forte.”

 

    He hummed interestedly. “Useful, but perhaps not the best thing to involve here; we’re trying to break our engagement, not get arrested.”

 

    “I’m not trying to bring the palace down!” She laughed, “I just want to see if they’ll even work on these walls.”

 

    “Likely not as well as you’re used to, but destabilise any structure enough and it will fall regardless of what it’s made from.”

 

    “Which is why I need to know how much is _too_ much.”

 

    He stared at her for a long while. “How are you allowed to roam freely in your realm?”

 

    She let out a laugh. “This coming from the guy who once animated all the roasted boars in the middle of a crowded feast just to see what would happen?”

 

    Loki broke into unreserved laughter, remembering the incident as clearly as he had when he’d told her of it. The only reason he’d gone unpunished for that was that his father hadn’t been able to contain his own laughter at the resulting chaos, which in turn made it humorous (whether honestly or not) to everyone else present. They walked on in silence afterwards for a long while, Edith trying to commit the path to memory for posterity; she noticed they hadn’t passed a single guard and figured Loki knew all their rounds and thus how to avoid them, and resolved to do the same at the first opportunity.

 

    “I’d like to keep one, to study,” Loki spoke up suddenly, “For purely academic purposes, of course.”

 

    Edith snorted amusedly, not believing that for a second, but said nothing in return.

 

****

 

    “How does the Bifrost work?” Edith asked suddenly, turning to look at Loki as he brought the pastry in his hand up to his mouth, causing him to pause.

 

    They were seated on the roof of a bakery after... _acquiring_ some treats, both covered in dust as they had fled the palace too quickly to bother cleaning up. Edith had miscalculated how much of a cell wall to dissolve, which had destabilised the structure of the room and caused the whole thing to collapse, almost with them in it. They’d barely managed to evade the guards that came to investigate the racket and Loki had taken Edith’s hand and pulled her along the servant’s passages until they were outside, wisely deciding they _really_ shouldn’t be in the palace at that moment.

 

    “I... am... unsure?” Loki frowned, setting the pastry down on the cloth between them. “I’ve _tried_ to study it, but everyone always steers me away from it when they find out.”

 

    She snorted. “Can’t imagine why.”

 

    He returned an almost boyish grin, causing her to laugh, then turned curious. “I know why _I_ want to know, but why do you ask?”

 

    A sloppy shrug as she looked back out to the city before them. “Half curiosity, half wanting to know if maybe I could send word back home? I just... I know the guys trust me to take care of myself; I just don’t want them to worry _too_ much, you know?”

 

    “They really are your family, aren’t they?” He asked, noting the fond look on her face whenever she spoke of them. “I’m sure it would be no trouble to send a letter to them; messengers come and go between the realms all the time.”

 

    The smile she flashed him was so dazzling, he decided then and there he would do just about anything to see it sent his way again.

 

****

 

    They had just returned to the palace after a while of Loki showing off his skill with illusions by sowing chaos in the market, much to both their amusement and delight, when they noticed Thor heading straight for them, his pace quick and expression somewhat urgent. Loki went to ask him what was wrong, but before he could get a word out Thor grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and Edith by the arm and turned them around before half dragging them with him in the direction they’d just come from.

 

    “Thor, what in hel are you doing?” Loki managed as he tried to extricate himself from his brother’s grasp.

 

    “Saving your hides!” Thor snapped, turning towards the stables. “Look; I have no idea what you two have planned to escape your marriage and I don’t want to know, but for Norns’ sakes could you not have started with something less likely to get you thrown in the dungeons?”

 

    “I take it Odin’s a bit upset?” Edith asked lightly.

 

    “You might say that,” Thor ground out.

 

    “It was only a room,” Loki continued casually, “A long unused one, at that.”

 

    That earned a sound somewhere between a sigh and a growl of annoyance, and the pair couldn’t help laughing. “This is serious, Loki! You cannot push father too far.”

 

    “Thor, I’ve been pushing father for half my life,” Loki replied with a grin as they reached the stables, where their horses were already tacked and waiting, “We haven’t gone too far. Not yet.”

 

    Thor mounted his horse with a sigh. “Why persist?” He asked as he watched Loki pull Edith up behind him on his horse, “You clearly get along.”

 

    “Luckily,” Loki huffed, urging his horse forward.

 

    They rode in silence for a while, their swift pace not very conducive to conversation, until they were far from the palace, out of the city and deep into the forest beyond. Only then did they slow down and then stop by a spring, dismounting and giving the horses some respite. Edith was quick to remove her boots and go into the water up to her knees, letting out a pleased sigh. The brothers chuckled and she suddenly turned and splashed them both, earning exclamations of surprise she laughed at. In retaliation Loki used magick to send a rather large wave of water towards her, tearing a shriek from her as it knocked her down, soaking her completely.

 

    “Now that was just mean, brother,” Thor managed through his laughter.

 

    Loki returned Edith’s glare with a smug smirk, at least, until Thor suddenly shoved him into the water, causing Edith to burst out laughing again. Loki was about to retaliate when he noticed Thor’s expression and his eyes widened, just barely managing to duck out of the way as his brother leap right into the water after him. The resulting bout of wrestling that followed lasted until the brothers suddenly turned on a still laughing Edith and dove after her, causing her to shriek and attempt to get away.

 

****

 

   Thor turned to Loki beside him where the three had stretched out on the ground, tired from their ultimately childish activities but in an undeniably good mood. “You didn’t answer my question.”

 

    “What else is new?” Loki joked, earning a scoff and a light shove he laughed at. “What question?”

 

    “Why fight your betrothal? I know you didn’t have the best introduction, but you don’t seem to hate each other now.”

 

    Loki sighed. “Because we didn’t choose this, brother.”

 

    “Your dad just told us we were getting married and that was that,” Edith added from Loki’s other side. “No one bothered to ask what we thought, or cared that it would completely uproot my life.”

 

    Thor hummed. “I suppose I cannot truly understand that, but I do see your point.” He sat up and stared at them with a serious expression. “You have my support; just do try not to destroy the palace.”

 

    The grins the pair returned were almost identical in their mischief, and Thor somewhat feared for the realms should they decide to marry after all. _Father, what have you done._


	11. Chapter 11

    Odin Borson, Allfather and King of Asgard, did not have many regrets in his life; even when things did not necessarily go according to plan, he usually could find a way to turn it around to his advantage. This most recent of his choices, however...

 

    Edith had been in his realm for only a month, and he was already wondering how he ever thought it would be a good idea to bring her. The amount of trouble she and Loki had caused so far was nothing short of impressive, made all the worse by the fact that they hadn’t actually caused much harm (barring the incident in the old dungeons, in any case, which he _still_ didn’t know how they’d managed) since Loki was meticulous in steering them away from going _too_ far. Thor seemed to have developed a cautious liking for the redhead, and Odin knew for a fact that he had covered for her and his brother on a few occasions, though the one time the king confronted him about it, he steadfastly denied it. Frigga was simply happy that the pair was getting along so well, and truth be told the Allfather would share the sentiment... if only their antics were not the cause of so many headaches.

 

    After dismissing _yet another_ aggrieved noble (at least he _thought_ she was a noble; they tended to blur together after the first few dozen), the king made to retire to his study; halfway there he decided he needed to yell at something and changed course to Loki’s hall, where he knew his son would be, having all but put him under house arrest _again._ He was fully prepared to have to deal with the Trickster’s particular brand of humour and/or attempts to placate the worst of his anger.

 

    He was not, however, prepared to walk into the anteroom only to find Edith climbing in through the balcony.

 

    He spared a moment to wonder how in the Nine she’d even managed that before noting that at least she seemed just as surprised to see him as she dangled halfway over the railing. Odin closed his eye for a moment then walked over, reaching to her and helping her the rest of the way over. “Do the words ‘do not leave your chambers’ mean something else on Midgard?”

 

    Edith grinned sheepishly. “It’s, uh... lovely weather we’re having, isn’t it?”

 

    Odin stared at her for a long moment then sighed and stepped aside, gesturing with his arm towards the closed door of Loki’s bedchamber. She flashed him another grin then quickly went over, walking in without knocking and shutting the door behind her. The king shook his head with a light huff and walked back out of the room, heading towards his study after all.

 

    No; Odin Borson, Allfather and King of Asgard, did not regret many of his choices. And perhaps, the king considered, if the girl were less likable, it would be easier to count this last one among them.

 

****

 

    Loki had just come out of his bathroom when Edith walked in and he looked at her slightly surprised, both because she usually knocked even if she didn’t actually wait for him to invite her in, and, more importantly, she wasn’t supposed to be in there; his father had made it very clear neither was to leave their rooms, much less be in the same one.

 

    “How did you get in here? I’m sure father told the guards to keep you out of the hallways.”

 

    “Didn’t use the hallways.”

 

    “Then how...?”

 

    “Balcony,” Edith shrugged casually.

 

    Loki stared her incredulously for a moment then shook his head, not sure he really wanted to know how she’d managed that. The woman was just full of surprises. She went over to his bed and jumped onto it, right in the middle of it, he noticed as he went over to get dressed, and he rolled his eyes. He still had no idea why she insisted upon it; his bed really wasn’t that much more comfortable than her own, Frigga had seen to it, and she rarely actually used _that._

 

    “So...” She began, looking over and then hastily looking away as he had dropped his towel at that precise moment, causing him to laugh quietly to himself, “What exactly did our latest target do anyway?”

 

    “Whatever do you mean?” He asked back in what she now recognised as his ‘I’m lying but not actually trying to get away with it’ voice.

 

    “You don’t think I’ve noticed you don’t just pick people at random to mess with?” She looked over again and was silently relieved he’d put on his pants by then because she had completely forgotten why she wasn’t already looking at him, “Give me a _little_ credit.”

 

    He laughed. “My sincerest apologies,” He replied unapologetically as he reached for his under shirt then pulled it on. “As for what she did; it was more what she _didn’t_ do.” A raised eyebrow and he smiled and walked over to lie next to her on his stomach, crossing his arms to use for a pillow. “She didn’t heed my warning to cease spreading gossip about you.”

 

    Edith’s brow furrowed in confusion. “Me? What for? I’d never even met her.”

 

    “Irrelevant; her issue with you is our betrothal. She seemed to be under the impression that if I lost interest in you, she could have a chance to take your place as my bride.” He rolled his eyes. “Never mind that I turned her down long before we met, which should be telling enough even without knowing we have no intention of marrying.”

 

    “Why pick her, though, if she wasn’t saying anything about you?” He shrugged noncommittally and a slow grin spread on her face. “You _like_ me,” She teased in a sing-song voice.

 

    “Of course I like you,” He scoffed, “You think I’d let just anyone wander into my bedchamber, let alone appropriate most of my bed, without consequence?”

 

    “Oh, no; don’t try to play it cool!” She turned onto her stomach and moved closer, mimicking his position, “You know I wouldn’t have cared what anyone was talking about me behind my back. But _you_ cared, meaning you _really_ like me.”

 

    The smile slowly faded from his face and he was quiet for a while. “And if I do?”

 

    “Then you do,” She shrugged then snorted amusedly, “Just don’t tell your parents, or we’ll never hear the end of it.”

 

    He breathed a laugh. “Nooo, we wouldn’t want _that.”_

 

    Edith rolled onto her back and they slipped into a comfortable silence for a while before she broke it. “Odin was here earlier.”

 

    “When you arrived, I assume?” She nodded and his eyebrows rose in disbelief. “And he left without yelling at us?”

 

    “I know right? Weird.”

 

    Loki hummed thoughtfully then turned onto his side, propping his head up on his hand and looking down at her. “Edith?” An answering hum. “What exactly do you have against your own bed?”

 

    Edith fought and ultimately lost to her laughter.


	12. Chapter 12

    The warriors looked on impressed as Edith let fly arrow after arrow at the practise targets in front of her. While she didn’t always hit the centre of the target, the woman had very good skill with the weapon.

 

    Loki had decided they should hold off on causing trouble for a bit, to give his father time to cool off before he really did throw them in the dungeons for a week as he’d threatened to do, and so he’d brought Edith to the training grounds. Part of it had been a desire for a little practise of his own (for practical purposes; _not_ to show off his combat skills), but he was also curious as to what Edith could do. He knew she was good with explosives, obviously, and she’d told him Natasha had trained her in hand to hand combat, but he wondered how she’d handle other weapons.

 

    “You are quite good with that,” Thor commented.

 

    Edith looked over and smiled proudly. “Clint taught me. I’m not nearly as good as he is, but I get by. Used to the arrows doing more, though.” That earned her some questioning looks. “He has tons of trick arrows; I like the ones that explode, personally.”

 

    “Of course you do,” Thor replied with an amused snort.

 

    “Any other weapons you can wield?” Fandral asked.

 

    Edith shrugged a bit. “I’m not terrible with a combat knife, I guess.”

 

    “Well; if you ever wish to learn how to handle a sword...” Fandral began.

 

    “There are literal hundreds of people to learn from,” Loki finished for him somewhat bitingly.

 

    “True, but why not learn from the best?”

 

    “Good point,” Sif spoke up before Loki could then turned to Edith, “So if you ever want lessons; let me know.”

 

    “That is cold, Sif,” Fandral complained as the others burst into laughter.

 

    “I’ll keep that in mind,” Edith said through her laughter. She turned to Loki with a smirk. “Now I seem to recall someone bragging along the way here, and yet nothing’s been proven.”

 

    Loki returned the smirk. “What is you say on Midgard? ‘Ladies first’? I was merely being courteous.”

 

    He walked over to the rack of weapons on one side of the room and selected a pair of long knives, weighing them in his hands before making his way to the centre of the arena. With a wave of his hand the targets Edith had been practising on vanished and several constructs materialised around him. Loki flipped his knives in the air, sending Edith a quick grin, then began his attack.

 

    She’d be lying to say she wasn’t impressed; the way he moved seemed more like a dance than battle, his every movement fluid, each attack leading to the next one so smoothly you could barely tell where one ended and the other began. She had imagined the grace and precision he carried himself with would translate well to fighting and she was right. Edith hadn’t realised just how mesmerised  she’d been watching him until he’d stopped moving, panting slightly from the exercise, and turned to look at her, a proud and more than a little smug smile on his face.

 

    “Is that proof enough?” Loki asked somewhat cheekily.

 

    “It’s a start,” Edith replied, trying to play off the sudden flush of embarrassment at her obvious admiring as though it were nothing.

 

    Loki laughed, immensely pleased with his success... that was absolutely _not_ the goal from the start. At all.

 

    The other warriors stared between the pair as they went to put away their respective weapons. “Shall we bet on which one of them gives in first?” Fandral asked lightly.

 

    “I’m thinking she will,” Volstagg replied.

 

    Sif scoffed. “You would.”

 

    “It won’t be her,” Hogun said simply.

 

    “Are you willing to bet a round on that?” Fandral asked.

 

    “I’m willing to bet two,” Sif replied and Hogun nodded his agreement.

 

    “Deal,” Volstagg said with a laugh.

 

    Thor shook his head with an amused huff. “Just as long as it doesn’t reach _their_ ears. I’ll have no part in what that would bring; I rather like having all of my limbs attached.”

 

    They dropped the conversation as Loki and Edith returned, causing the former to narrow his eyes a bit in suspicion, and then Fandral suggested they all get better acquainted with the redhead over a drink (or several), to which the other warriors enthusiastically agreed. Loki didn’t look particularly thrilled with the idea, but said nothing to try and influence her decision when she looked at him, and so she simply shrugged and agreed.

 

****

 

    “And so as Clint is explaining that we are not, in fact, terrorists; the detonator suddenly decides to work again and the bomb goes off, sending a couple hundred tons of steel and concrete plummeting down behind us,” Edith recounted to the really quite amused patrons of the tavern.

 

    “What did you do?” One of the barmaids, who’d stopped working a while ago to listen, asked.

 

    “Hightailed it the hell out of there and left Steve to explain the mess,” Edith replied with a snort, earning another round of laughter. “He refused to speak to us for a month, but on the bright side, it got us our own quinjet.”

 

    “That is a midgardian airship,” Thor helpfully provided.

 

    “Are your campaigns usually so chaotic?” Fandral asked, as it seemed to be the general theme of the stories she had shared so far.

 

    “When I’m involved? I’d say eight times out of ten,” Edith replied with a grin, “That’s why they usually only send me in when property damage isn’t a concern.”

 

    “Perhaps we should take you troll hunting with us,” Volstagg suggested with a laugh.

 

    “Perhaps not; lest she bring the whole Realm Below down on us,” Fandral chimed.

 

    “What, are you afraid of a challenge?” Sif teased.

 

    “Me? Never! The bolder, the better!” Fandral declared jovially, raising his glass high to be met with cheers from the rest of the tavern.

 

    “I might just hold you to that,” Edith said with a smirk, drinking from her glass of significantly milder asgardian liquor (courtesy of Loki, the only one of them to actually remember the usual stuff would have killed her at the rate they were drinking).

 

    Thor laughed. “You may come to regret your words, my friend.”

 

    “All the more reason he should do it,” Sif replied.

 

    “Dear Lady Sif; if you persist in this, I may come to believe you dislike me,” Fandral said in mock hurt, to which she rolled her eyes.

 

    Edith looked over at Loki to find a rather bored expression on his face as he watched the others’ continued banter and she leaned closer. “How about we ditch these guys and find some real fun?”

 

    He smirked in response. “You read my mind.”

 

    He took her hand and led her out of their seats quietly, leaving an illusion of them in their places, then pulled her along out of the tavern keeping their presence hidden with seidr. She’d expected him to let go once they were outside, but he didn’t; instead leading her through the somewhat populated streets of the city, seeming to have a destination in mind.


	13. Chapter 13

    “This is not quite what I had in mind when I said ‘fun’,” Edith said as she looked into the opening of the cavern Loki had brought them to dubiously.

 

    “Patience is a virtue, dýrr minn,” Loki teased.

 

    “Not one of mine, and what does that mean?”

 

    He merely grinned in response then tugged on her hand to lead her inside; she narrowed her eyes at him suspiciously for a moment but ultimately let him. The inside of the cavern was very dark but Loki seemed to know exactly where he was going, which was more than could be said for her as she followed him, stumbling a bit a few times, causing him to tighten his hold on her to keep her from falling. After a while, and several hissed and muttered curses, they reached a larger opening, where a soft light seemed to be emitting from. Edith let out a soft gasp as they walked in; all around them the rock was lined with some kind of luminescent pale blue mineral. When she looked back at him he was watching her with a slight smile and she blushed lightly.

 

    “Shut up.”

 

    “I haven’t said a word,” He laughed.

 

    “What is this stuff?” She asked, looking around again.

 

    “What it _is_ , is less important than what it _does.”_

 

    “Okay; then what does it _do?”_

 

    In lieu of a reply, he conjured a small box which he then handed to her to hold, then took out a knife and carefully cut out a small piece of the mineral, placing inside the box before turning back to cut another one. Once the box was full, he took it back then walked back the way they’d come in; she expected him to take her hand again to lead the way out, but he conjured a small glowing orb in his free hand that illuminated the cavern just enough to navigate.

 

    “You couldn’t do that when we came in?” She asked in disbelief.

 

    He said nothing and, it could very well have just been a trick of the faint light, but she could have _sworn_ she saw his cheeks colour slightly before he turned away.

 

****

 

    They were crouched down on the roof of the tavern where the others were, looking at the people milling about below in various states of inebriation amusedly. It was early evening now and more people were wandering in, which worked perfectly for Loki’s plan. He opened the box and took out a small piece of mineral then held it out at arm’s length over the edge of the building; with a quick look at Edith to ensure she was paying attention, he opened his hand and let the piece fall down onto the street below, right in the middle of some people. The moment it touched the ground, it exploded with a loud _crack_ and a bright flash, startling people into letting out shouts and shrieks.

 

    They quickly ducked out of sight, trying to hold in their laughter lest they get caught; once he deemed it safe, Loki took out another piece from the box and held it out to her. “Care to do the honours?” He asked with a mischievous grin.

 

    “Do you even need to ask?” She asked back, matching his expression.

 

    And so they spent the following half hour, tossing pieces of the mineral towards the unsuspecting asgardians below, who soon began looking for the source of the disturbance but never seemed to occur to them to look up. Finally, Loki tossed one in the middle of some drunken warriors just exiting the tavern, who reacted by jumping back, knocking into others behind them, who in turn took offence. Before long brawling broke out, the resulting noise allowing them to stop muffling their laughter at last, which they took full advantage of, leaning on each other for support and trying to breathe through their mirth.

 

    Suddenly Loki stopped laughing and pulled Edith with him to lie flat on the roof, covering her mouth with his hand. She looked at him confusedly but before he could explain she heard Thor’s booming voice below, apparently having joined the brawl. For a while they stayed put, still trying to catch their breaths, then Loki seemed to remember his hand was still covering Edith’s mouth and hastily pulled it back. When Thor’s voice seemed to move back inside the tavern, they risked sitting back up and peeking over the edge of the roof, confirming that he had. They looked back at each other and broke out laughing again.

 

    “If anyone actually remembers how this began in the morning, he’ll know it was us,” Loki said then looked down at what was visible of the commotion below and huffed amusedly, “Given how much fun he’s having, though, I don’t think we need to worry.”

 

    “So, starting bar brawls is your idea of a night’s fun, huh?”

 

    “Well; it’s _one_ of them, anyway,” He replied with a cheeky grin.

 

    She let out a laugh then looked back over the edge and snickered. “Not quite on par with explosives, but I’m not complaining.”

 

****

 

    It was very late when they wandered into the palace kitchen; the head cook Birgitta, a rather imposing woman of tan skin and dirty blonde hair with streaks of grey, looked over at them and Loki gave her a slightly sheepish smile, causing her to roll her eyes and beckon them over to a small table in the corner. Once they were seated, she brought them some food that had been left over from dinner, to which they dove into eagerly after thanking her.

 

    “One of these days, boy, mark my words, I will throw you out,” Birgitta warned sternly.

 

    “No, you won’t,” Loki replied assuredly, “How else would you be sure I’ve eaten?” The cook huffed in response then turned and walked away, leaving them to their meal. Edith sent him a questioning look and he grinned a bit. “Birgitta has been sneaking me food since the first time father sent me to my chambers without supper when I was a child. She is not _nearly_ as stern as she pretends to be, at least not to me; she always makes my favourite treats.”

 

    “That explains a lot,” She teased, nudging him with her shoulder, earning a laugh.

 

    When they finished their food he walked her to her room, chatting idly along the way until the conversation turned to their trip to the training ground, and by the time they reached her door he’d offered to teach her how to use daggers, to which she tentatively agreed. They stood there for a moment staring at each other seemingly at a loss for words before Edith’s expression turned a bit quizzical, until he realised he was leaning towards her a bit then stood up straight again and cleared his throat.

 

    “Well... good night,” He bid her somewhat awkwardly.

 

    “Right,” She replied, looking at him a bit oddly then turned and walked into the room.

 

    He stood there for a while after she’d closed the door, mentally kicking himself for that really quite shameful display. Shaking his head sharply he turned and walked away towards his hall, thoroughly annoyed with himself and his terrible inadequacy to just...

 

    He stopped dead in his tracks as what he had almost done truly sunk in, his eyes wide with shock.

 

    _This was not the plan. This is the exact opposite of the plan!_ He berated himself rather frantically, trying to shove the realisation away. _Damn it. Damn it. Damn it!_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 'dýrr minn' = Old Norse for 'my dear' or 'my precious'
> 
> And yes, I am thoroughly enjoying myself. XD


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Because things aren't complicated enough...

    Edith ran through the hallways of the palace, barely paying attention to the people going about but to avoid collisions, her expression a mixture of worry and anger such that most who managed to actually see it in her flight quickly got out of the way. In her hand was clutched a message addressed to Thor that she’d picked up after the man himself had discarded it, the contents of which very much concerned her despite that she had not been told of it. Her quick feet took her all the way to the king’s hall and then his study, which she burst into without so much as a knock.

 

    “Edith!” Loki exclaimed, surprised she’d come in there without invitation. Even _he_ didn’t dare.

 

    “What is the meaning of this?” Thor demanded, just as surprised.

 

     Edith ignored them both completely, focusing her irate attention on Odin. “When were you going to tell me??”

 

    Loki looked back at his father incredulously. “You didn’t tell her?”

 

    He had been somewhat avoiding her since his... very awkward discovery, but this was important; he would have told her himself if he had known Odin had kept it from her. Though he couldn’t imagine why his father would have done so; if anything, he’d have expected him to at least include her in the discussions.

 

    “I didn’t see the need,” Odin replied calmly, causing Loki’s brows to rise even further in disbelief and even Thor to look shocked, “The matter will be tended to as I have begun telling you both.”

 

    “You didn’t see the need in telling me my home is about to be invaded??”

 

    “ _Is_ it still your home? You’ve barely even mentioned it in the two months you have been here.”

 

    Loki saw the murderous look flash across Edith’s expression and quickly moved towards her just as she launched herself at the Allfather, grabbing her by the waist and hauling her back. Odin looked on impassively, having known that would likely be her reaction to his words.

 

    “You wish to fight alongside your mortal comrades, yes? These invaders may very well be far beyond your capabilities.”

 

    “I don’t care! They’re going to be the first ones in the line of fire, and that’s exactly where I belong, too.”

 

    Odin stared her down for a long while and she met his gaze unflinchingly. “So be it,” The king finally said, “Ready yourself; you will depart in half an hour.”

 

    Thor looked somewhat surprised, having assumed his father hadn’t summoned Edith along with them because she would not be joining them, but Loki narrowed his eyes at the king suspiciously. He met his gaze with an indecipherable expression and Loki filed it away for later. He pushed Edith before him towards the door, following after her with his brother then led her all the way to her room, only then excusing himself and heading towards his hall to ready for the journey.

 

    She was pacing in the dome when the princes reached the Observatory, dressed in the outfit she’d worn when they first met her, and looked over at them as they walked in. A quick word with Heimdall and the three were on their way to Midgard.

 

****

 

    The meeting was... not going well.

 

    When Fury had called them in and informed them that they’d had a break-in of sorts in one of SHIELD’s labs that resulted in an artefact they were studying being stolen and the lab destroyed; Steve figured it was pretty bad, to put it mildly, both for the lives lost and the potential danger that could follow. When Fury had Natasha... _retrieve_ Dr. Bruce Banner, who’d already declined getting involved in anything they had going on, ostensibly to help track down the artefact and thus the thief; Steve was more than a little suspicious, deciding maybe he ought to go on a little fact-finding mission. And he hadn’t been the only one, though Tony’s approach had been different.

 

    Steve was, as far as he was concerned, understandably angry at the fact that SHIELD had been developing weapons with the Tesseract - one of the things he’d risked dying over to keep away from the rest of the world, which was bad enough on its own - and had been careless enough in poking at it that it would attract the attention it had. Now it was once again in enemy hands, and the declaration of war issued by such would have been bad enough _without_ the knowledge that the army in question was not even of Earth.

 

    Tempers were high, despite some attempts at keeping things peaceful; so it was with some relief that Agent Hill interrupted to announce that something had apparently landed on the airstrip of the Helicarrier, which was... odd, considering they were currently in mid-air. A camera revealed the new arrivals to be Edith, Loki and Thor, which Fury had questions about that were promptly ignored as the heroes left the room to go greet them.

 

    Loki had, unsurprisingly, had the foresight to use a spell to keep them standing when Heimdall had informed them they would be arriving to Midgard onto a moving aircraft, and they quickly made their way to the door leading in. There were agents on the other side but they lowered their weapons upon seeing Edith, though the slightly wary looks they gave her as they did so told Loki it was less because she was an ally and more because they knew about all the explosives likely on her person. A quick question from the redhead later and they were on their way to the meeting room, making it halfway there before running into the others. Edith broke into a run and launched herself at Tony, nearly knocking him off his feet but for Steve behind him keeping him upright.

 

    “I missed you too, kid,” The billionaire said slightly breathlessly, tugging on her arms that were tightly wrapped around his neck.

 

    “I’m assuming your timing isn’t a coincidence,” Natasha inquired as Edith let go of Tony.

 

    “It is not,” Loki confirmed.

 

    “Know what we’re dealing with?”

 

    “Likely more than you, but not as much as I would like.”

 

    “It’ll have to do,” Steve said, “I doubt these guys are going to wait until we have all the intel. We’re already a man short unless Clint can shake off a head wound in time, and the longer they have the Tesseract-”

 

    “They _what??”_ Thor interrupted, looking as alarmed as Loki felt. Odin hadn’t mentioned _that._

 

    “Oh, good, you know what it is,” Tony said lightly in the face of their obvious shock, “One less thing to explain.”


	15. Chapter 15

    They reconvened in the meeting room so that Loki and Thor could share what they knew about their enemy (the chitauri, they called them), which wasn’t all that much as their information came second hand and Asgard had had only vague dealings with them, but it was more than they’d had before. About their apparent leader, however, they knew nothing save for confirming that he wasn’t a chitauri himself once shown the footage that had survived from the destroyed lab.

 

    “That sceptre is quite a powerful weapon; I’ve never seen its like,” Thor commented then looked to Loki questioningly.

 

    “There are whole worlds we’ve never seen,” He shrugged, “It could be from any one of them.”

 

    “So, we have no idea what this guy’s capable of, or what exactly he’s going to do with the Tesseract,” Bruce spoke up, “Wonderful.”

 

    “I know exactly what he intends with the Tesseract,” Loki countered, “It’s how his army will come to this realm; he will use it to open a portal. The only way we stop that is to find out _where_ he intends to do such, since given what we know of his activities, he currently possesses all he requires for it.”

 

    “What would his options be?” Steve asked to no one in particular.

 

    “Given what else he’s taken, he needs something built to use the Tesseract with,” Tony mused, “And whatever that is, I’m betting it’s gonna need power, and a lot of it. Something stable.”

 

    “He’s also going to need somewhere spacious,” Bruce added, “Can’t exactly fit a whole army in a random basement.”

 

    “And as the point is to conquer; he’ll want somewhere both well populated and of some significance to your people,” Loki continued, “So to better make a point.”

 

    They thought for a moment, trying to narrow down the possibilities enough to work with. After a while, realisation dawned on both Tony and Edith’s faces. “Son of a bitch,” Tony said.

 

    “The tower,” Edith said almost at the same time.

 

    “It’s perfect; the reactor will give him all the power he needs and then some, the building’s tall enough he can just point the cube at the sky and turn it on, and I don’t know about significant, but there’s always plenty of people in New York.”

 

    “And, thanks to _some_ people, he has a few days’ head start,” Steve finished with a pointed look at Fury.

 

    Before Fury got a chance to respond to that, an alert of incoming missiles came just moments before they impacted, rocking the entire aircraft and knocking most of them off their feet save for Loki, Tony and Edith; the former two of which managed to brace themselves on the table, with Loki grabbing hold of Edith before she fell. As soon as everybody was up again they were on the move, with Fury snapping orders to the crew to assess the damage, find out where the fire was coming from and ready the carrier’s weapons as they went.

 

    There were several other explosions before long as more missiles made contact, one of which took out a big enough chunk of the aircraft to destabilise the area below where Natasha, Bruce and Edith currently were, causing the floor to collapse and them to fall along with it, and knocked the rest of them back.

 

    “Edith!” Loki called out as he stood and realised what happened, moving to go after her, but Steve stopped him.

 

    “It’s unstable; you go in there, you might just get them killed!”

 

    “We gotta go, people!” Tony warned as the floor beneath them shook dangerously under their combined weight, “Now!”

 

    With one last look at the hole, Loki followed the rest of them to safe ground, hoping Edith would be alright.

 

****

 

    Edith groaned as she regained consciousness, the impact having knocked her out; her head was throbbing and she’d be surprised if she didn’t have a concussion. She heard Natasha’s voice speaking to someone, probably Bruce she remembered, and she sounded worried, maybe even scared. That gave her pause. She’d never heard Natasha sound scared in the entire time she’d known her. Then she remembered what she’d read about Dr. Banner and her eyes snapped open; she looked towards Natasha besides her just as the spy looked over to her, a flash of relief on her expression as she saw she was awake.

 

    Natasha looked back to somewhere before her and Edith turned onto her side to follow her gaze in time to witness Bruce mid transformation, causing her eyes to widen, and quickly sat up and looked Natasha over, wondering why she was still on the floor. The large piece of metal pinning the spy’s leg answered her question and she wasted no time in moving to it as quietly as she could to lift it enough for Natasha to pull her leg free. As Edith helped her up they looked over to Bruce - or rather, the Hulk, and he looked back at them for a few moments before letting out a near-deafening roar.

 

    “Move!” Natasha yelled as she turned around and pushed Edith in front of her.

 

****

 

    There was chaos all over the Helicarrier; that much they were all aware of. They had all separated before long, with Tony and Steve heading to see what they could do about the engine they’d lost, and Loki and Thor going off to see if they could find a way to reach Edith and Natasha before the creature they’d been informed Bruce turned into killed them. Along the way both parties met resistance as the aircraft was boarded by hostiles with guns, likely mercenaries they figured, though they were hardly a threat for the armoured and super-powered fighters, which lead Loki to believe they were merely a distraction.

 

    The brothers reached a hallway that split in opposite directions; exchanging a look they each took one, Thor going left while Loki headed right. Thor encountered a larger number of enemies the further he went, though he was unsure if that meant he was closer or farther from his intended destination. Either way, he made short work of them; their bullets harmlessly bouncing off the force field around him - a parting gift from his brother, in case the enemy had acquired more powerful weapons than they knew - as he batted them away with his hammer. He went down several sets of stairs, hoping they would lead him to the level of the aircraft he wanted.

 

    Just as he began to think he was going the wrong way, he saw Edith running down a hall in front of him quickly followed by Natasha, and soon after by a large green creature he assumed to be the Hulk. He hurried after them, launching himself at the Hulk before he could attack a downed Natasha and smashing through the wall nearest them. They stood and faced each other down for a moment before the Hulk attacked him, attempting to beat him down with his fists, which Thor dodged before punching him, causing him to stagger back a step. That only served to make the creature angrier, the god discovered, and he went after him, trying to crush him though Thor caught the descending fist.

 

    “We are not your enemies, Banner,” Thor tried to get through to the scientist, “Try to think!”

 

    In response, the Hulk punched him with his free hand, sending him flying back crashing into some crates with enough force to crush them.

 

    Thor stood and grabbed Mjolnir from his belt, facing the Hulk down. “So be it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just so you guys know, there may be some delay for the next chapter. Hurricane Maria is passing through here on Wednesday, and I have no idea how long I'll be without power after that. Took about a week after Irma to get power back in my town, and unless Maria changes course at the last minute, the impact will hit where I live hard, so I really don't know what's gonna happen with that. I hate to leave you all hanging after how this one ends, but there's nothing I can do about that. Here's hoping the wait won't be too much; I'm every bit as eager to share this story as some of you seem to be to read it. :)


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I got electricity back, bitches!! Fingers crossed it stays back. To celebrate, here's a chapter.

    Edith had hesitated when she saw the Hulk hit Natasha, sending her crashing into the wall, wanting to help her but knowing she was hopelessly outmatched and that the spy would never want her to risk her life for her; the moment Thor had taken the creature out of the hall, though, she wasted no time in going over and helping a very shaken Natasha up. She couldn’t blame the usually unflappable woman from being rattled; the Hulk was significantly more terrifying up close than on paper, though part of that was likely the fact that he’d been bent on killing them.

 

    “We gotta go,” Edith said shakily as she began pulling Natasha down the hall, “We have a fight to get back to.”

 

    Natasha shook her head sharply, Edith’s voice reminding her that she wasn’t alone. She had to keep her safe. She couldn’t afford to be compromised now. There would be time to feel later. Giving Edith her gun, which was surprisingly still in its holster after their fall, she went on ahead; she had trained the younger woman well, but when it came down to it she was still stronger and more experienced, and they couldn’t risk Edith’s explosives there.

 

    Natasha raised her hand to her earpiece. “Does anyone read?”

 

    “Nat! Are you and Edie alright?” Tony was quick to ask.

 

    “We’re alright, but Banner’s compromised,” Natasha replied. “What’s our situation?”

 

    “Working on getting engine three back up,” Steve replied, voice sounding a bit strained as he fought his way through a group of mercs.

 

    “Loki and Thor went to looking for you,” Tony added.

 

    "Yeah, Thor’s busy with Banner. We haven’t seen Loki, though; probably split to cover more ground. We’ll keep an eye out.”

 

    “Alright; watch your backs,” Steve said.

 

    “Always.” She turned to Edith. “They’re working on one of the engines. Loki’s around somewhere looking for us.”

 

    Edith nodded her understanding. “We better find him; we’re going to need him if the big guy decides Thor’s not fun enough for him.”

 

    With that they continued on, making their way through halls and walkways, some of which had seen some damage. They ran into a few engineers being cornered by several mercs; the men barely had time to turn before Natasha ran right into the closest one to her, jumping into a headlock and snapping his neck then flipping him into the others, knocking two down. Edith shot down three more as they aimed for the spy, leaving her to take out the ones on the floor. Once that was taken care of and the engineers were on their way to a safer part of the carrier, the two women headed on.

 

****

 

    Natasha rounded a corner only to find herself pinned to the wall with a dagger to her neck before she could react. Upon seeing it was her, Loki took the blade away and backed up, looking to the corner almost frantically then relaxing a bit as Edith stepped into view.

 

    “Are you harmed?” He asked, hating that he was unable to keep all the anxiousness out of his voice.

 

    “I fell through the floor; what do you think?” Edith replied somewhat sarcastically, trying to distance herself from the experience until the enemy was dealt with, earning a slightly strained laugh. “I don’t think anything’s broken, but I’m probably not going anywhere near Dr. Banner anytime soon if I can help it.”

 

    “Thor?”

 

    “Dealing with Banner,” Natasha replied.

 

    “Of course he is.”

 

    The carrier shook under the force of another explosion, though it didn’t feel as big as the last ones, and they stumbled a bit, Loki’s arm shooting out to hold Edith up on instinct.

 

    “We need to get to the upper levels; the others might need help,” Edith said once it stopped, receiving nods in response.

 

****

 

    Tony was not having fun. At all.

 

    Getting the engine running again was pretty simple, if not necessarily easy what with the people shooting at him and Steve; almost getting torn to shreds by that same engine before Steve managed to get to the lever that would slow it enough for him to get out, however, he could have done without. He had heard Fury order somebody to distract the Hulk before his fight with Thor tore the carrier apart while he was in the engine, and then the follow up declaring that the creature had literally jumped ship just before his suit lost power which caused him to groan; that would complicate things, he would bet.

 

    But that was a problem for later; right now he had to get out of his unfortunately quite useless armour. Preferably _before_ someone decided he would be a good target.

 

    His solution came in the form of one Steven Grant Rogers, and he was sure he would never hear the end of it. Still, he would take it. Once Tony was out of the suit, Steve led the way back into the rest of the aircraft, though they didn’t encounter any more enemies, which they couldn’t quite decide whether it was good or bad news. Halfway to the control room on their way to assist, Steve heard Fury declare that what was left of the enemy was retreating, which was both good news and bad, as it meant that while they had a chance to regroup it likely meant the enemy had accomplished what they came to do.

 

    Steve reached for his earpiece. “Nat; you still there?”

 

    “Still here,” Natasha replied, “Found Loki. You guys good? And has anyone seen Thor?”

 

    “We’re good; though Tony lost another suit,” Steve replied and she could just hear the smirk that Tony could actually see, “We haven’t seen Thor.”

 

    “He’s fine,” Fury cut in, “He’s on his way up; get back to the meeting room _now_ to debrief.”

 

    “Copy,” Natasha replied.

 

    “On our way,” Steve said then turned to Tony. “Nat and Edith are fine, and they found Loki. We’re debriefing in the meeting room; Thor’s on his way.”

 

    Tony let out a breath in a whoosh. “Hell of a day.”

 

    “Day’s not over yet.”

 

    “Yeah, well; I don’t have a drink anywhere near, so I’ll just pretend it is until it’s time to go, alright?”

 

    Steve scoffed, shaking his head with a half-smile, then they turned and headed for the meeting room to join the others and hopefully make sense of things.


	17. Chapter 17

    Loki’s theory that what they had just faced was a distraction sent by their enemy was received with about as much enthusiasm as he’d expected (understandable, of course; it was hardly a pleasant thought), but it was unanimously agreed it was the likelier explanation, given the extent of the damage done in such a short amount of time and how fast they’d retreated after the fact. Causing Bruce to turn into the Hulk was probably unintentional but it had ultimately worked to their advantage with all the destruction he’d caused.

 

    The Helicarrier was barely hanging on, and between the missiles and the Hulk’s rampage the jets that had been aboard were gone, which meant they couldn’t head for New York as quickly as they had hoped. And so they dispersed to get their wounds tended to or otherwise help where they could. Loki followed Edith to the med bay, wanting to make sure she was alright. Once her cuts were bandaged and her head checked (no concussion, surprisingly), she looked around and noticed that Natasha wasn’t in the room anymore, causing her to frown.

 

    “Hey,” She called to the nearest medic, “Where’s Agent Romanoff?”

 

    The medic looked around, noticing that the spy was indeed gone, then shrugged helplessly.

 

    “She left some minutes ago,” Loki replied then frowned a bit. “Surprisingly stealthy, that one; I didn’t notice when she did.”

 

    “Well, she _is_ a spy,” Edith said somewhat distractedly then stood from the cot, heading for the door. Loki made to follow but she stopped him with a hand on his chest. “Better not. I’ll be fine.”

 

    He nodded, clearly not pleased but understanding what she meant, and she left the room. Edith wandered the hallways, trying to stay out of the way of those working on repairs, occasionally checking rooms. It took a while, but eventually she found Natasha in an isolated room, sitting on the floor in a corner with her knees drawn up to her chest.

 

    “Nat?” She called, mostly to alert the other woman to her presence, as she didn’t seem to have noticed, staring fixedly at the floor before her. Natasha didn’t move, so Edith walked up to her, sitting beside her. “You left the med bay without telling me; that’s cheating.”

 

    Natasha said nothing for a long while, and Edith noticed she was trembling a bit. She took a few deep breaths, the last of which was less shaky. “I’ve been compromised,” She said at last.

 

    Edith was silent, staring at one of her closest friends worriedly. After a moment she tentatively reached for the other woman’s hand and pulled it away from her knee, setting them down between them and entwining their fingers.

 

****

 

    The air was tense in the room when Edith and a once again completely composed Natasha walked in as the others were discussing their options, or rather lack thereof. Loki glanced their way and Edith gave him a small reassuring smile to let him know all was about as well as it was going to get.

 

    “We need to get to the tower _some_ how,” Steve said, at this point sounding about as frustrated as he was feeling, “At this point we have to assume we’re too late to stop whatever machine they need to open the portal with being built, we may even be too late to stop the portal being opened, but if we don’t get there _now,_ a lot more people are going to die.”

 

    “Unfortunately, we’re sorely lacking in the flying department,” Tony replied, “This thing’s barely in the air and definitely not going anywhere fast.”

 

    Steve lost his composure and slammed his fist on the table in front of him, leaving a dent in it. “Dammit; how did we get caught so off guard?!”

 

    “Might have something to do with our _illustrious_ leader waiting so long to bring us in,” Tony chimed with a forced lightness that failed to completely hide his anger.

 

    Steve looked towards Loki and Thor. “Any chance either of you has a solution?”

 

    “I could fly there, but I would only be able to bring one of you with me,” Thor replied with a slight helpless shrug.

 

    Loki shook his head. “If we had time I could come up with something even with what little we have at hand, but we don’t.”

 

    There was silence for a while as they mulled things over, not a one of them willing to give up just yet but not seeing what they could possibly do, and then there was a slight crackling sound from the PA system as outside communication managed to get through.

 

    “You guys look like you could use a lift,” Clint’s voice came through.

 

    “Barton?” Fury’s voice was heard responding, “What’s you status?”

 

    “Got a fully fuelled quinjet and a mighty need to fight something. Landing in two minutes; you guys better be there or I may just go take on this son of a bitch myself.”

 

    “I wouldn’t recommend it; I won’t be held responsible for what your team will do to you if you survive it.”

 

****

 

    “Thought you had a head wound,” Tony asked Clint as they flew to the tower.

 

    “Wasn’t as bad as they thought,” Clint replied. Natasha gave him a look from the co-pilot’s seat and he grinned a bit sheepishly. “And I may have bribed a nurse.”

 

    “But you’re good to fight?” Steve asked.

 

    “I’m good to fight.”

 

    Edith looked at Loki, who was sitting next to her making a show of examining one of his daggers as he stole surreptitious glances at her while he thought she wasn’t looking. “You’re hovering,” She said quietly.

 

    “Pardon?”

 

    “You’ve been doing it since you found me and Nat back there.”

 

    “If you’re going to fault me for worrying; you will have to take issue with the rest of your team as well,” He scoffed.

 

    “That’s not it,” She shook her head, “I appreciate that. But you’ve been weird all month, and I’m getting the impression that you either don’t know why or don’t know how to deal with it.”

 

    Loki didn’t reply for a while, seemingly engrossed in checking the sharpness of the blade. “A bit of both, I think.”

 

    “Well, best of luck figuring it out, but in the meantime let me breathe or you’re going to get us both killed.”

 

    He breathed a laugh. “So this is what she’s like?” She gave him a questioning look. “Edith the Warrior,” He clarified, “I wondered.”

 

    “I do live with two spies and a soldier,” She grinned, “Wouldn’t be much use if I didn’t learn to focus when it counts.”

 

    “True enough,” He agreed with a nod, putting his dagger away. “I’m glad for it. And I’ll try to remember that you can take care of yourself.”

 

    “Good.”

 

    As she turned her attention away Loki watched her, thinking. She wasn’t wrong, both about his behaviour of late and the reasons for it; though he knew exactly why he was ‘hovering’, as she put it, he had no idea what to do about it, largely due to the fact that he’d been trying to avoid that precise thing. Clearly he had failed miserably. But what _was_ going to do about it now?

 

    Perhaps, he decided, that was a problem to be addressed when the current situation was resolved.


	18. Chapter 18

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's a line in this chapter that I am _absurdly_ proud of, and if you guys know me even a little, you'll know it when you read it...

    They were, as Steve had guessed, just a bit too late to stop the portal being opened; reaching the vicinity of the tower just as a beam of energy shot up into the sky and seemingly tore it open. Tony had sent word to JARVIS along the way and a suit flew up into the open quinjet, assembling itself around him as they looked on to the stream of aliens descending towards the city.

 

    “Well, that’s... huh,” Tony commented somewhat lamely.

 

    “We need a plan,” Edith said, a bit of worry creeping into her voice at the sheer number of enemies.

 

    “We need to get their attention,” Tony said mostly to himself before leaping out and flying towards the portal and the chitauri.

 

    “Or you could do that,” Edith said sarcastically.

 

    “We have to draw them away from the civilians,” Steve said, not even bothering with Tony’s disregard for actual, team-involved planning. They could argue about it later, assuming they all survived, like always. He looked to Clint. “Drop us off along the way then get to the tower; someone has to shut that thing down.”

 

    “Got it.”

 

    He then turned to Edith. “You’re with me; you know the drill.”

 

    Edith nodded and pulled her goggles down over her eyes. For a split second, Loki didn’t look particularly pleased with the decision, but quickly shoved the concern aside, remembering what he’d said before. They had never faced the chitauri before, but it was hardly the first battle for any of them and the odd group of mortals had been a team for a lot longer than Loki had known them, so it was safe to assume they knew how they worked best with each other. Besides, he thought to himself, he could always join them later if the situation allowed for it.

 

    In the air, Tony began shooting down as many chitauri as he could, trying to get as many of them to go after him instead of the people below who were only beginning to grasp what was happening, scrambling to get out of the way of the strange creatures firing at them on the streets and ducking into the first potential cover they could reach. He wasn’t as successful as he would have liked but did get some of their attention as several squadrons began to turn in his directions intending to pursue.

 

    Clint dropped the quinjet as close to the ground as he dared among the chitauri going after people on the street; Steve pulled his shield off his back and jumped right out to land on a group, knocking them all down before rolling to his feet and bashing the one in front of him with enough force to crack its skull. Edith sent a quick nod to the gods before following the soldier out, landing into a roll and throwing her hands out as she righted herself, setting loose the exploding orbs within them and taking out all the aliens in front of her, then she ran up to another, dodging the blast of its weapons and jumping to bring her knee connecting with its face harshly.

 

    As soon as they had exited the aircraft Clint pulled back up and moved on, intending to drop the asgardians off somewhere else they could be of help. Given that Thor had held his own against the Hulk, the archer figured him and his brother could handle the greater numbers the closer to the tower they got, and so he flew the jet straight into a large number of chitauri.

 

    “Hope you like a crowd.”

 

    Thor let out a laugh. “When this is over; we must share drink and stories.”

 

    With that the older prince leap out of the jet and right into the middle of the fray, and Loki shook his head with a slight smile of his own before following after him, landing on the ground in time to see Thor cleaving his way through the creatures as though they were nothing. He wasted no time to find his own targets, movements a blur as he slashed away with his daggers, focusing more on the creatures attempting to make their way towards the fleeing civilians.

 

    The quinjet was once again making its way to the tower, taking out any alien aircrafts unfortunate enough to get in the way of the determined agents aboard. They had reached the roof when Clint dove to the side to avoid a blast from the strange sceptre the enemy carried, the very same that had nearly killed him when the cube was taken; the blast instead took out one of the jet’s wings and Clint swore as he turned trying to direct them to as safe a landing as he could.

 

    “ _Really_ hate that guy,” Clint ground out as he dodged buildings and alien aircrafts alike.

 

    “At least now we know Dr. Selvig’s still alive. For now,” Natasha said, bracing herself for the impact that came soon after.

 

    “Doubt that’s going to be the case for long,” Clint replied as they left their seats and grabbed their weapons, shoving his attention away from the headache that was forming. There would be time for that later. Maybe.

 

    They exited the downed jet side by side, firing away at the chitauri awaiting them outside and making every shot count. “The quinjet is down; we need a new plan,” Natasha spoke into her comm.

 

    “Oh, Fury’s gonna love that,” Tony commented, taking out a handful of chitauri ships with a volley of missiles from his shoulders, “I got my hands full, but I’ll see what I can do.”

 

    “Watch out for that sceptre,” Clint warned, “It packs a hell of a punch.”

 

    “You know, it’s sweet how you worry. I knew you cared.”

 

    “Kiss my ass, Stark.”

 

    “Clinton Francis Barton, I did not know you were an exhibitionist,” Tony gasped with mock shock.

 

    “Oh, my _god,_ Tony!” Edith laughed, almost missing her target as she threw another handful of explosives.

 

    “Why do I even bother?” Clint muttered, a corner of his lips turning upwards despite his efforts.

 

    “You know why,” Tony replied smugly.

 

    Edith ducked as Steve came to stand over her defensively, shield blocking a blast from a chitauri weapon; as they stood she looked up to the portal and her eyes widened, prompting Steve to look as well just in time to see a frankly enormous... _thing_ come flying out. It somewhat resembled some kind of serpent. It flew down, more chitauri dropping from it as it weaved through the buildings.

 

    “Guys, are you seeing this?” Steve asked, not quite believing his eyes.

 

    “Seeing,” Tony replied as he changed direction and flew more-or-less parallel with the creature from a distance, “Still working on believing. Where’s Banner? Has he shown up yet?”

 

    “Banner?” Steve asked back confusedly, looking down at Edith, who returned the look with a shrug.

 

    “Just keep me posted.”

 

    Natasha dove behind an overturned car, the blast just narrowly missing her, and dropped her empty guns. “I’m out!”

 

    Clint fought his way through the chitauri surrounding him with his bow until he reached her. “A hand would be appreciated here, guys.”

 

    “On our way,” Steve replied, nodding to Edith to follow him before leading the way through the streets.


	19. Chapter 19

    Loki and Thor exchanged a look when the leviathan appeared, deciding without a word to join up with the mortals; this would require a new plan. Ensuring there were no people left out in the open, they began to make their way to where Clint said he and Natasha were after requesting assistance, cutting down any chitauri in their way.

 

    “You know, Sif and the others will likely take exception to being left out of this one,” Loki commented, stabbing a chitauri in the neck and taking its gun, firing at three others behind Thor.

 

    Thor snorted amusedly. “Didn’t think that would bother you, brother.”

 

    “It doesn’t,” Loki scoffed, ducking as Thor threw Mjolnir at a group of chitauri behind him, “If anything, it will give me something to taunt them with.”

 

    Thor rolled his eyes, calling the hammer back to his hand. “I’m rather surprised you didn’t object to Edith going off to fight alongside the captain.”

 

    “Why would I have?” Loki asked somewhat defensively.

 

    “It is only that you were so insistent on remaining by her side before; and this is far more dangerous than the previous attack.”

 

    “I’m not her keeper; she can take care of herself,” Loki replied shortly.

 

    “I don’t doubt it...”

 

    Loki stopped and turned on Thor, taking advantage of the fact that there were no chitauri in their immediate area. “What exactly are you implying, Thor?”

 

    “I think you know,” Thor replied seriously, “And I think you need to tell her.”

 

    “I think you need to mind your own business,” Loki snapped, turning and continuing on before his brother could reply.

 

    Thor sighed frustratedly then followed him. “Loki-”

 

    “Not now.”

 

    “Then when?”

 

    “I don’t know, brother; how about when we are not in the middle of stopping an invasion?”

 

    “What if you don’t get the chance later? What if she-” Loki whirled around so suddenly, he almost ran into him.

 

    “Do. _Not._ Say that,” Loki hissed.

 

    “It is possible. We’ve seen enough battles to know that.”

 

    Loki didn’t reply, simply turned and continued on, taking out his anger and worry on any chitauri unfortunate enough to get in his way.

 

****

 

    Natasha had appropriated one of the chitauri guns by the time Steve and Edith reached her and Clint, and was busily taking out the aliens around them as Clint gave his attention to the ones firing at them from higher up in the buildings. They joined the agents, grabbing another chitauri gun each along the way and firing away at the multitude fast approaching.

 

    “We’ve got to get back up there,” Steve said, looking up at the tower and the beam from the device on the roof keeping the portal open.

 

    “I’m open to suggestions, Cap,” Clint replied, firing an arrow that splintered off into many smaller shards, taking out a handful of aliens at once.

 

    “You know they’re probably swarming us on purpose to keep us stuck here, right?” Edith asked.

 

    The gun in her hands seemed to jam and she frowned before sticking an explosive onto it and tossing it at a number chitauri approaching; the resulting explosion was larger than she anticipated, causing Steve to grab her by the arm and pull her with him to duck behind a car. She met his incredulous expression with a sheepish smile and he shook his head with a huff of a laugh, ruffling her hair affectionately before they stood.

 

    “We should just send Edie through the portal; problem solved,” Natasha suggested amusedly.

 

    “Plan B, Nat. Plan B,” Steve replied, earning a half-hearted complaint from the young woman. “More to the point, she’s right; these guys are keeping us here, away from the Tesseract.”

 

    Suddenly there was a loud crack of thunder followed by great bolts of lightning that struck down on a large number of chitauri, leaving nothing but ash as they faded, and Thor landed in their place. “Then let us relieve them of their advantage in numbers.”

 

    “Damn; could’ve used that in Laos last year,” Clint commented, causing Edith to snort with amusement at the memory.

 

    “Where’s Loki?” Natasha asked.

 

    Before Thor could reply Loki arrived on a chitauri ship, blasting his way through their numbers before jumping off, leaving it to crash into the remaining ones, and making his way to them.

 

    “Found him!” Edith chimed, earning a somewhat confused look from him.

 

    “We need to control this,” Steve said, “There were a lot coming here to keep us busy, but there’s a lot more going rampant all over the city. We need to draw them as best we can and take them out.”

 

    “Hey, guys?” Edith called, getting their attention, and pointed down the street before them, “Isn’t that...?”

 

    As they turned to where she was pointing, Bruce came into view riding a dirt bike that had clearly seen better days and dressed in clothes that didn’t appear to be his. They walked to him as he dismounted and met them halfway. “So, this all seems horrible,” He said by way of greeting.

 

    “I’ve seen worse,” Natasha replied.

 

    Bruce winced almost imperceptibly. “Sorry.”

 

    “No, we could use a little worse.”

 

    “Tony; we got him,” Steve spoke into the comm.

 

    “Banner?” Tony asked, dodging another blast and responding with one of his own.

 

    “Just like you said.”

 

    “Tell him to suit up; I’m bringing the party to you.” As he said that he turned a corner, coming into their view, and shortly after the leviathan followed, taking part of the building with it as it turned.

 

    “I don’t see how that’s a party,” Natasha commented as they braced themselves for the coming fight.

 

    Tony flew low to the streets, prompting the creature to follow. Bruce looked back at the others then shrugged slightly and began walking towards the leviathan.

 

    “Dr. Banner; now would be a really good time for you to get angry,” Steve said.

 

    Bruce looked over his shoulder at him. “That’s my secret, Captain; I’m always angry.”

 

    With that he turned and the others got a first-hand look at what Natasha and Edith had already seen as the scientist turned into the Hulk, finishing the transformation in time to halt the advance of the leviathan with a punch that crumpled its head almost completely. As they looked on slightly stunned, Loki felt someone bump into him a bit and looked down to find Edith had stepped closer to him, eyeing the Hulk somewhat fearfully; he placed a hand on her waist and she started slightly and looked up at him, finding a small reassuring smile that relaxed her again.

 

    “That’s... definitely useful,” Clint spoke up after a moment.

 

    “Here’s hoping there’s more where that came from; because there’s definitely more of _them,”_ Tony said as he landed, looking up at the portal where, sure enough, more leviathans and chitauri were pouring out.

 

    “Of _course_ there are,” Steve sighed. He hadn’t thought it would be easy, of course, but that didn’t make it any less frustrating. He turned to address the rest. “Alright, listen up; until we can close that portal, our priority is containment.” He looked to Clint and nodded up to a building. “Barton, I want you on that roof. Eyes on everything; call out patterns and strays.” He looked to Tony. “Stark; you’ve got the perimeter. Anything gets more than three blocks out; you turn it back or you turn it to ash.”

 

    “Right,” Tony replied, grabbing hold of Clint to drop him off along the way as he took to the air.

 

    “Thor; you got to try and bottleneck that portal, slow them down. You got the lightning; light the bastards up,” Steve continued and Thor nodded before taking off. “The rest of us, we stay here on the ground; keep the fighting here.” He looked at Edith, noting Loki’s hand still on her waist. “You stick with him. I know you can take care of yourself, just...”

 

    “I know,” Edith replied.

 

    Steve nodded, feeling a bit easier. “Hulk?” The Hulk looked at him expectantly. “Smash.”

 

    That earned him a grin before the creature leaped several feet onto the side of a building, and right into a chitauri, continuing on from building to building taking out as many of the aliens as he could see.

 

    “Well, at least he’s having fun,” Edith commented, still eyeing the green creature a bit warily. She looked at Loki. “Shall we?”

 

    Loki looked back at her intensely, as though he had something to say, but ultimately handed her a dagger. “Lets.”


	20. Chapter 20

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Holidays, peeps! *whistles innocently*

    He wasn’t sure what to think about the fact that she was better at keeping her attention on the fight than him, what with the worry a constant presence on the back of his mind. He wasn’t distracted enough to make a mistake, of course - he would never let it get _that_ far, not the least for the sake of his pride, but as it stood; she’d only spared him a few glances, mostly to orient herself as far as the enemy was concerned. He admired her focus, though; it certainly made things easier.

 

    The battle was going surprisingly well, all things considered, given the fact that they were so terribly outnumbered, but the longer it went on for, the less likely it would remain that way.

 

    “Edie! Got another wave headed straight for you,” Clint warned.

 

    “Got it,” Edith replied with a slight grunt as she drove her dagger into a chitauri’s eye. She turned to look at the approaching enemy and blinked at their numbers. “That’s... that’s a big wave.”

 

    “I’ve seen bigger,” Loki replied as he turned to look.

 

    “I’ll _bet,”_ She snickered, earning an amused snort.

 

    “Not what I meant, but you’re not wrong.”

 

    At that she choked on a laugh, still giggling a bit as she ran at the first one that got near enough, knocking its weapon aside and driving her dagger up into its brain. He followed after her, throwing knives disposing of five others before he reached two more, embedding his dagger in one’s skull and using its gun to shoot the other one down before the corpse fell. Edith reached into a belt pouch and threw a handful of explosive pellets out, taking out eight more, and leaped onto another one’s back, stabbing its neck a few times and using it as a shield against the other who fired at her.

 

    “Well, now you’re just showing off,” Loki commented as Edith pushed the dead chitauri into the one who’d shot at her, taking advantage of its distraction and throwing a knife at it.

 

    “You’re one to talk,” She retorted with a grin, “Should we be keeping score?”

 

    “Guys; it’s not a competition,” Steve chimed in through the comm.

 

    “Of course _you’d_ say that,” Clint replied, “How many dozens have you killed so far?”

 

    Steve simply let out a resigned sigh in response, earning laughs.

 

    As the fighting went on, Loki found himself watching Edith more and more closely, looking for signs of her growing tired, though he had no idea what he’d do if he found one; there were hardly any safe places for her to rest, after all. But if she was tiring, she bore it remarkably well. Thor’s words before they’d joined the others rose unbidden to his mind and he let out a snarl and drove his dagger into the chitauri before him with maybe a little too much force. As loath as he was to admit it, his brother had a point; they were holding up well for the moment, but battles could be unpredictable.

 

    He’d had a chance to tell her before the battle began and he hadn’t taken it; now hardly seemed like the time, but if the worst _did_ come to pass, could he live with himself if he never told her? Was the fear of her reaction worth that risk?

 

    _Oh, to Hel with it,_ Loki thought and made his way towards Edith, quickly dispatching a chitauri that was coming up behind her along the way. She turned around, the ghost of a smile on her face, and was about to say something when he grabbed her by the waist, pulling her against him, and claimed her lips with his own. When he pulled back she stared up at him completely shocked for a moment as he searched her face nervously, until a small smile formed on her lips, and he released the breath he’d been holding in utter relief.

 

    “Guys, I’m happy for you, really, but could we maybe focus on the invasion that is currently happening?” Tony’s voice sounded through the comms as he flew by them, causing them to part with a slight laugh before they returned to the fight.

 

****

 

    It took some effort and some very big risks, not the least of which was teaching herself how to pilot an alien aircraft in the about thirty seconds before it would have crashed, but finally Natasha made it to the roof of the tower. The Hulk had been there first, dealing with the enemy leader, and though she hadn’t seen how the creature had accomplished that, the... well, remains painted a rather clear picture. She certainly wasn’t about to complain about his methods, considering it gave her the chance to retrieve the sceptre without a fight. The leader’s death broke the control he’d had over Selvig, who wasted no time in telling her how to turn off the device powering the portal.

 

    “I can close it,” Natasha said, voice somewhat strained as she held the sceptre inches away from the Tesseract, “Can anybody copy? I can shut the portal down.”

 

    “Do it!” Steve replied.

 

    “No, wait,” Tony countered.

 

    “Tony, these things are still coming,” Steve replied.

 

    “I got a nuke coming in; it’s gonna blow in less than a minute,” Tony informed them, sounding a lot calmer about the fact than he thought he would. He sped up as he the missile passed him, gaining on it as an idea finished forming in his head. “And I know just where to put it.”

 

    Steve was quiet for a moment, realising what Tony had in mind. “Stark, you know that’s a one-way trip.”

 

    Tony ignored him as he caught up to the missile and held on. “Save the rest for the turn, J.”

 

    “Sir, shall I try Miss Potts?” JARVIS asked.

 

    “Might as well.”

 

    On the ground, the rest of the team looked on as Tony sped by above them, guiding the missile as best he could towards the tower before using the full power of the suit’s thrusters to push it upwards, heading straight for the portal then through it. Before long, every chitauri on the ground and even the larger creatures seemed to die all at once, falling where they stood, much to their surprise. With the threat gone, they looked up to the portal for any sign of Tony returning, despite what Steve had said.

 

    “Come on, Tony,” Natasha murmured, poised to close the portal.

 

    “Dammit, Tony; get back here,” Edith hissed, her hand unconsciously reaching for Loki’s, who gripped it tightly, knowing exactly how much the billionaire meant to her.

 

    After a few tense moments, Steve looked down and let out a deep breath. “Close it,” He said reluctantly.

 

    “What?! No!” Edith cried.

 

    “Edie...” Steve began.

 

    “No; I’m going after him,” Edith declared almost frantically, letting go of Loki’s hand and beginning to make her way to a downed chitauri vehicle nearby, ignoring Steve’s protest. Before she could get very far, though, she felt a pair of arms wrap around her middle from behind as Loki stopped her. “Let me go!” She screamed, struggling against his hold fruitlessly.

 

    Natasha plunged the sceptre into the device at last, shutting it down as Selvig said it would.

 

    “No! TONY!!” Edith screamed desperately as the portal began to close, causing Loki to screw his eyes shut, hoping she wouldn’t hate him for this.


	21. Chapter 21

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy New Year! *ducks*

    She hadn’t said a word to him.

 

    She’d breathed out in relief when Tony had fallen back out of the portal the second before it closed, rushing towards him as soon as Loki released her, and hadn’t so much as glanced at him since. He’d expected it, but it still hurt. He sensed Natasha walking up to him as he stood before one of the broken windows at the tower the second before she got to his side and looked down at her.

 

    “There’s not many people who can sneak up on me.”

 

    “I’m not most people.”

 

    “Evidently not.”

 

    There was a moment of silence before Natasha spoke again. “She needs time; a lot happened today.”

 

    “She’ll get all the time she could want,” He replied coolly, “Thor and I will be returning to Asgard with the Tesseract in the morning.”

 

    Natasha narrowed her eyes at him then huffed. “If you can hold this against her, she’s better off without you,” She said, matching his tone, before turning and walking away.

 

    He stood there for a long while, looking out at the devastation below, trying to will his thoughts to cease. “You’d think at this point in our lives I would know better than to listen to you,” He said without looking around as Thor walked up to him.

 

    “How is this _my_ fault?” Thor retorted indignantly, “If you had let her know sooner, the feelings would have had time to settle and she might not be so angry with you now.”

 

    “Oh, so suddenly you’re an expert on feelings? All your ‘relationships’ barely last days.”

 

    “What has that to do with it? I wasn’t in love with any of them. You know I am right, or you wouldn’t be deflecting.”

 

    “I am _not_ deflecting!” The look Thor gave him at that was disturbingly reminiscent of their mother and Loki found himself unable to maintain his gaze. “Don’t you have anything better to do than to pester me?”

 

    Thor rolled his eyes and placed a hand on his brother’s shoulder. “Loki; even I know she’s not truly angry at you. Whatever battles she has faced do not compare to this one. It’s a lot to experience even without almost losing one of the most important people in her life. And you of all people don’t get to judge such feelings being expressed in anger at the nearest target; I still remember the hel you put me through after father took Fenrir away.”

 

    “He would never have found out about Fen if you had kept your mouth shut,” Loki retorted.

 

    “And had you not stopped her, she would have gone after Stark.”

 

    “What was I supposed to do? If he hadn’t returned, she would have died with him!”

 

    “Which she will realise once the shock has worn off.”

 

    Loki was silent for several moments. “When did you get so observant?”

 

    Thor scoffed. “I won’t pretend to be at your level, brother, but I’m not an idiot. I’ve known you your whole life, she is a lot like you,” He shrugged, “It’s not that difficult.”

 

    Loki glared at Thor at the implication that he was easy to read then sighed. “Well, since you’re so keen on giving advice; what should I do?”

 

    Thor huffed somewhat amusedly. “What neither of us has ever been very good at: You wait.”

 

****

 

    Tony had never really considered himself to be a clingy person; he didn’t much like the vulnerability such a thing tended to bring with it, and he much preferred to show his affection towards those who’d won such in other ways. That said; he certainly wasn’t about to part from the redhead currently attached to him as though her life depended on it. With the way she’d cried as soon as they’d confirmed the battle was over and had retired to the damaged tower they called home, it may as well have. The last time he’d seen Edith cry that hard was the day of her mother’s funeral, and he wasn’t too keen on seeing more of it.

 

    Truth be told, he needed the contact just as much as she did; it reminded him he’d made it back.

 

    There was a soft clearing of a throat then Steve walked over to them, eyeing Edith somewhat guiltily. “How’re we holding up?”

 

    “You tell me, soldier,” Tony replied, sounding about as tired as he felt.

 

    Steve winced a bit, understanding the reference, then walked closer. “Edie?” An amber eye peeked out from under a curtain of hair just enough to glare at him and he sighed. “Edie, I’m sorry, but I had to make the call.”

 

    “He’s right, kiddo,” Tony added, ruffling Edith’s hair a bit, “I knew what I was doing. I knew what it might mean. It had to be done.” Silence met his words and he pulled back enough to look her in the eyes. “Look, I know you want to be mad at him, at everything and everyone, but you know we’re right. This is what we do, and we’ve always come back more or less in one piece, but that doesn’t change the fact that one day we won’t. You’re not ready to accept that, I get that; just don’t blame him for doing what he had to.”

 

    Edith thought it over for a moment then looked at Steve. “Sorry,” She offered softly.

 

    “I’ll forgive you on one condition,” Steve replied then opened his arms wide.

 

    Edith let out a shaky laugh then extricated herself from Tony, stood and walked over to Steve to hug him. When they parted Edith looked between the two of them. “I think... I have another apology to make.”

 

    Tony huffed, having a feeling he knew who she was talking about. “Yeah, you and I need to have a conversation about that; I need to know what threats to bring out.”

 

    Edith rolled her eyes, smiling all the same, then left the room. She asked JARVIS where Loki was, being directed to the now ruined common room, and made her way there. Once there, she hesitated, biting her bottom lip as she contemplated how to actually approach the god; she’d largely been in an emotional daze since they’d gotten back to the tower, but she remembered perfectly well how distant she acted towards him. He knew she was there. She knew that he knew. But he didn’t turn to look at her or acknowledge her presence in any way and it stung, though she knew she deserved it given she’d done exactly the same to him.

 

    She walked up to him and hugged him from behind. “I’m sorry.”

 

    The more moments passed without any sort of response, the worse she felt, until finally he reached up to pull her arms away from himself and turned around to face her. He took in the storm of emotions in her eyes, foremost among them being guilt, and wrapped his arms around her waist to pull her closer, resting his forehead against hers. “So am I.”

 

    She shook her head as much as she could without breaking their contact. “You had to; I was going to get myself killed.”

 

    “And what a shame that would be.” That earned him a somewhat strained laugh.

 

    “You kissed me.”

 

    “That I did,” He said somewhat guardedly.

 

    “Why?”

 

    A slight shrug. “It seemed like a good idea at the time.”

 

    “And now?”

 

    “Now I rather wish I hadn’t.”

 

    Her face fell and she looked down. “Oh.”

 

    “I should have saved it for the victory feast.”

 

    Her head snapped back up and he felt a flash of guilt at the tears that had begun to gather in her already red and puffy eyes. He cradled her face in his hands, leaned down and kissed her. It was gentle and unhurried in the absence of the urgency that drove the first one, each of them savouring the feeling after all the turmoil they’d just been through.


	22. Chapter 22

    They ran into Bruce on the way to the kitchen after she gave in to Loki’s insistence that she eat something, knowing she hadn’t left Tony’s side long enough for it, and she felt a twinge of guilt at his crestfallen but understanding expression when she instinctually flinched away from him, practically hiding behind Loki as a result. Realistically she knew the scientist couldn’t be held responsible for the damage his alter ego caused, but that did little to dispel her far too recent experience with such.

 

    “I’m... really sorry about... well, everything,” Bruce offered.

 

    “I know. I don’t blame you, really. It’s just...” She trailed off helplessly.

 

    “Too soon?” Bruce finished for her, inwardly pushing down a rare flicker of hope, and she nodded. “I get it. I’ll just... stay out of your way until further notice,” He said with a slight smile that she returned, stepping aside to let them pass.

 

    Despite her efforts, she still didn’t fully relax until they’d turned the corner, then felt bad about it. She just couldn’t help it.

 

    “It gets easier,” Loki reassured.

 

    “Have a lot of experience with big green rage monsters, do you?” She retorted with as much amusement as she could muster, though her voice still shook a bit much to her annoyance, causing her to grimace slightly.

 

    “You have met my brother, haven’t you?”

 

    “Thor’s not green,” She deadpanned.

 

    “He _could_ be.” The laugh that bubbled out of her seemed to surprise her and he grinned. “That’s better.”

 

    “You cheated,” She accused, poking his ribs and trying to fight back her smile unsuccessfully.

 

    “And I will again, I guarantee it.” He pulled her closer. “You need time for everything to settle; I remember my first great battle well, and I’d trained for such for most of my life beforehand, which is not a luxury you had.”

 

    She heaved a frustrated sigh, dropping her forehead onto his chest. “See, part of me knows that, but the rest of me’s still wondering why the hell _that’s_ what got to me out of all the times I could have died today.”

 

    “Because the chitauri were always the enemy; Banner was not.” He took her chin between his fingers and lifted her face back up to his. “Give it time. You’re strong enough for all of this; just give it time.” He stole a quick kiss then turned her around by the shoulders and nudged her forward. “Now, food.”

 

    She grumbled something about him being bossy that he chuckled at but continued walking regardless. A tired looking Clint and Natasha were already there when they walked in, the latter of which eyed Loki with the completely serious expression Edith recognized as her ‘about two seconds away from shooting you’ face, and she looked back at the god questioningly, wondering what in the world he could have done in the time she’d been away from him that would warrant such.

 

    “If you’re thinking of attacking me, for Edith’s sake I should warn you it would not end well for you.”

 

    “Dude; stop giving her reasons to find a way to hurt you,” Clint complained, “She’s bad enough as it is.”

 

    Before Loki could reply, Edith stepped forward in between him and the agents. “Okay I don’t know what’s going on here, but Nat, we talked about this.”

 

    Natasha turned to Edith, the hostility completely gone from her face. “You’re sure?”

 

    “Yes...?” That earned her a raised eyebrow. “I’m invoking rule five.”

 

    That seemed to satisfy the spy, who nodded once before returning to her food. Loki looked at Edith questioningly but she was already walking towards the fridge, so he looked to Clint who simply shrugged, seeming just as out of the loop. He filed it away for later then followed Edith. With a bit of poking around, they cobbled together a meal then joined the others at the table, eating in silence.

 

    After they finished, Clint turned to Edith. “How you holding up?”

 

    “I feel like I want to sleep for a month,” She sighed then frowned. “I also want to blow up the entire Council.”

 

    He breathed a laugh. “Pretty sure Fury would give you the bombs himself.”

 

    “What the hell were they thinking, _nuking_ Manhattan?!” She ranted, throwing her hands up, “I know we’ve never handled something this big before, but what the fuck! They didn’t even give us a chance! But, oh, I bet they’ll be glad to take credit for Tony using the damn thing. Probably even say that was the plan all along; never mind that it damn near got him killed!”

 

    “They don’t do what we do; they can’t handle it. They saw the hole in the sky and they panicked.”

 

    “So did everyone else; I’m pretty sure none of the civilians would have thought a fucking nuke to the city was the answer.”

 

    “Probably not; more’s the shame that none of them were the ones calling the shots.”

 

    “And it probably wouldn’t have even worked anyway; the only thing that managed to get through the force field around the Tesseract was the sceptre. In all likelihood, they would have killed all those people, and us, for nothing; and then who the hell was going to stop those things?”

 

    “Don’t really think they considered that, kiddo. They probably just went with what would have worked for... basically any threat _not_ coming from deep space, going on the assumption that we’d fail.”

 

    “I have to wonder at the wisdom of having people who have never seen a day’s fight in their lives leading you,” Loki commented somewhat distastefully, “Most of the men on father’s council have long since been in battle, but at least they’ve been, and they most certainly have more confidence in our warriors.”

 

    “Hey, we didn’t pick ’em,” Clint shrugged. “At least you’re taking the Tesseract away from them; that’s a lot more power than they need.”

 

    “You were never intended to find it at all,” Thor said as he walked in, going to sit beside Loki, “Father meant to hide it here for good.”

 

    Clint snorted. “Your dad needs to get better at hiding things, then, because we found it twice.”

 

    “Humanity has advanced quite a bit since then. Far more than he expected in such a short amount of time, by our reckoning,” Loki said then rolled his eyes, “He would have noticed if he actually paid attention to this realm every so often. Whatever your people’s shortcomings; you have a knack for progress. Now if only you would stop killing each other with it...”

 

    “Don’t let Steve hear you say that; he’ll never shut up about it,” Clint replied, earning a kick to the shin from Edith and a punch to the arm from Natasha. “Ow! What? It’s true!”

 

    “Don’t be a prick,” Edith said.

 

    “I don’t get paid to be nice.”

 

    “At least you _get_ paid.”

 

    “You’re rich; you don’t _need_ to get paid.”

 

    “It’s the principle of the thing.”

 

    “Brat.”

 

    She blew a kiss at him in response, causing the rest of them to laugh. As he watched their banter, Loki felt a pang of something he didn’t much like; at first he thought it might be envy, he’d never really experienced that level of camaraderie with anyone save for his brother and maybe Fandral, and it had been quite some time since it felt like what he was seeing. The more he watched, though, the more it began to feel like something else. He did feel a bit envious of just how close Edith was to her friends, true, but it was negligible; this felt more like unease, but he didn’t know over what.

 

    In fact, he realised, it felt more like _fear._

 

    But of what?

 

    “Well, Loki agrees with me,” He heard Edith say, snapping him out of his thoughts with an almost imperceptible jolt most of them missed. “Right?”

 

    He looked between them all then shook his head. “I wasn’t paying enough attention to risk involvement.”

 

    Clint let out a victorious laugh and Edith huffed in annoyance before turning away from Loki, leaving him to his confusing feelings.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really enjoy tormenting that poor guy, in case you couldn't tell. XD


	23. Chapter 23

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I realise you all have questions. This chapter will not answer them. I am not sorry. XD

    They had moved to the common room, now clear of glass and debris, joined by Tony, Steve, a somewhat uncomfortable looking Bruce and the recently arrived Pepper. Tony had wasted no time getting the alcohol flowing, claiming that if there were ever a time for a post-battle drink or twenty, that was it, and not even Steve argued with him about it.

 

    They were all basically sprawled on whatever vaguely comfortable surface that would support their weight they found, with Tony and Pepper on the remains of one couch; Natasha, Steve and Thor on the other; Clint had simply grabbed a cushion from one of the couches and claimed the coffee table; Bruce had dragged the one remaining barstool to the outer edge of the group; and Edith had moved an armchair from the corner of the room that Loki claimed out from under her with a challenging smirk, to which she’d shrugged and shamelessly sat in his lap. He hadn’t quite expected that, as was quite evident on his face, and she’d had a good laugh over it before he threatened to shove her to the floor if she didn’t stop; that of course only served to make her laugh harder, and in the end he’d resigned himself to it, liking the sound too much to continue to be annoyed.

 

    Conversation at first was mostly centred on how they would deal with the backlash from the Council their plans for the next day would likely bring but soon devolved to swapping stories with the asgardian princes, which resulted in further respect all around for their respective skills in battle, and some highly amusing stories from Pepper about Tony and Edith that had the bonus effect of providing Loki with quite a bit of teasing material for the latter, much to her dismay. Eventually they lapsed into a tired but comfortable silence that preluded their drifting away for some much needed rest, and Pepper informed Bruce, Loki and Thor that there were guest rooms they could use before she left, half dragging an equally drunk Tony with her.

 

    Before Clint left, he glanced Loki and Edith’s way and chuckled, and Loki soon found out why as he nudged Edith a bit so she’d get off him in order for him to stand, only to find that she’d fallen asleep. He looked over at Thor to find a badly suppressed smile.

 

    “Not a word,” He warned, and the fact that he’d lowered his voice so as not to wake her did not go unnoticed.

 

    Thor stopped trying not to smile. “You brought that on yourself, you know.” His smile widened. “If our friends were here to see this...”

 

    “Shut up.”

 

    “And mother!”

 

    “If you tell her; I will feed you your hammer,” Loki threatened in a hiss.

 

    “I can imagine it now; she’d have the wedding planned before the morning broke.”

 

    “Thor, I swear to Norns.”

 

    Thor laughed, quietly of course, unbothered by the baleful glare his brother was sending him. “Peace, brother; I won’t say a word.” He stood and headed for the elevator. “Of course; I cannot speak for Heimdall...”

 

    Loki swore viciously under his breath.

 

****

 

    Edith jolted awake just as Loki was setting her down on her bed, and it was only his quick reflexes that saved his face from the fist she instinctively shot out; she relaxed when she saw it was him and mumbled a sleepy apology before settling back, drifting off almost immediately. He let out a soft laugh then pulled the covers over her and got up. For a long while he simply stood there watching the peaceful expression on her face; things could have gone so different and part of him still hadn’t let go of how easily he could have lost her, now that he’d accepted that he cared that much, and needed the visual assurance that she truly was alright. Finally he shook his head a bit then turned and walked towards the door; he was halfway there when a sound from the bed stopped him, so soft he almost believed he’d imagined it. He stood still for a moment and, sure enough, the sound came again: A whimper.

 

    Loki turned and walked back to the bed, looking down at Edith; her eyes were moving rapidly behind her eyelids, her brow was furrowed, and her breathing was growing faster. She was clearly having a nightmare. He thought for a moment then sat beside her and ran his hand through her hair. She moaned softly but seemed to relax a bit, so he repeated the action, this time earning a sigh. He stayed there, running his fingers through her hair soothingly, until her breathing evened out as her dreams calmed then began to get up, only to be stopped by a hand latching itself onto his coat. Thinking he’d woken her, he prepared an apology/explanation on his lips, only to realise she was still very much asleep.

 

    “Of course,” He sighed. He debated with himself for a bit then used his seidr to remove his armour, leaving just his undershirt and pants on, and carefully settled down beside her. She responded by turning and cuddling into his side, and he let out another sigh and wrapped his arm around her, hoping she’d still be that keen on being so close to him come morning.

 

****

 

    Ultimately he’d decided not to take the chance, slipping out of her bed in the morning as carefully as he could, thankfully not waking her, and left the room, only to be met with Natasha as he stepped back from the door and turned around. He tried and marginally succeeded in hiding his surprise at how she’d snuck up on him yet again. Her expression was unreadable on a level that rather impressed him, and then he realised what his leaving Edith’s bedroom at that hour could look like.

 

    “Before you ask; nothing... untoward happened.”

 

    “I know.”

 

    He couldn’t decide if he was relieved or insulted that she was so sure.

 

     “She had a nightmare.” It was not a question.

 

    “Does she have them often?”

 

    “No, but yesterday wasn’t normal. I’d be more surprised if she didn’t have any, and worried. There’ll be more.”

 

    “I take it you will take the responsibility of asking her for the details.” Natasha shook her head, surprising him. “Oh?”

 

    “You will.”

 

    Loki blinked. “Me?” He narrowed his eyes suspiciously. “Why?”

 

    “I think you know why.”

 

    With that she walked around him and went into Edith’s room, leaving him looking after her half confused.

 

****

 

    Natasha was sitting at her desk when Edith awoke, carefully cleaning a disassembled gun. She looked over upon hearing shuffling from the bed then placed the part in her hands down, grabbed something from the floor next to her and stood, making her way to the bed. She sat leaning against the headboard, smiling slightly at Edith’s sleepy greeting of ‘Morning’, and placed a somewhat large plush great white shark on the younger woman’s lap.

 

    “You fixed her!” Edith cheered half awake, sitting up and taking the plushie, hugging it tightly.

 

    “Rule seven.”

 

    “For you or for me?”

 

    “I had my moment; it’s your turn.”

 

    Edith looked at Natasha with a slight frown but elected not to push the matter, instead moving closer and leaning on the spy’s side, cuddling into her as an arm came up to wrap around her.


	24. Chapter 24

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter would have been done sooner if only my ADHD hel brain hadn’t decided that starting four (4) new fics instead was the better idea. And gods help me, I have half a plot for two more. Whyyy.

    Breakfast was mostly a quiet affair, as most of them were half-asleep (or hungover in some cases (contrary to the denial of such)) despite the late hour in which it was had. Fury had called them sometime afterwards (and finally succeeded in making contact the tenth time he did so, not that anyone counted) to discuss what would be done about the Tesseract; they had expected some objection to the decision of giving it over to Asgard but it never came, and so they’d departed the tower and headed to Central Park.

 

    The park was deserted of civilians, most of the city still reeling from the attack and the rest redirected by agents Fury had sent out. They stood in a circle around Thor, who held the container housing the Tesseract in his hands, having said their goodbyes and waiting for the god to call upon Heimdall. He looked between his brother and Edith with a smile, glad things seemed to be working out between them so far; whatever his worries about setting the destructive young woman upon Asgard, he both liked her and above all wanted Loki to be happy.

 

    “What exactly am I to tell father and mother?” He asked, “I don’t think they’ll be too happy with you staying, what with, well... recent developments.”

 

    Loki scoffed. “They’re the ones who keep insisting on us accepting their plans for us; I rather doubt they’ll mind where we are as long they think we will.”

 

    “And will you?”

 

    “One step at a time, Thor,” Edith replied and Loki nodded his agreement.

 

    “Fair enough,” He conceded then turned to Loki, “I suppose I’ll see you when you get back, then.” His smile widened. “Perhaps not alone...”

 

    Loki rolled his eyes. “Just go, already.”

 

    Thor laughed then stepped back and called for the Bifrost, the beam of light and colour descending shortly after and carrying him away through the realms.

 

    “Man, that thing is flashy,” Clint commented.

 

    “You should see the bridge on the other side,” Edith replied. She looked around at them all. “Soo... what now? Do we have plans?”

 

    “Do we ever?” Steve asked back.

 

    “We always have plans,” Tony replied, “It’s just that people usually end up shooting at us.”

 

    “True.” He shrugged. “Lunch?”

 

    “We just ate, like, an hour ago,” Clint replied.

 

    “Your point?”

 

    Edith snorted amusedly. “I mean; he’s not wrong.” That earned some laughs. She glanced around the park, noting the number of civilians gathering beyond the patrolling agents was growing. “Why don’t we figure it out back home? We’re starting to attract a crowd.”

 

****

 

    They ended up all going their own ways once back in the tower, with the exception of Tony all but dragging a bemused Bruce with him to one of the labs ‘for some science-ing’, and Loki following Edith back to her room intent on discussing some rather important things.

 

    Which he might accomplish, he berated himself, if he actually _talked_ to her.

 

    Instead it was her who broke the silence, sitting on one side of her bed with her shark hugged close to her chest while he occupied the other. “What did you do to Nat?”

 

    He blinked. “Pardon?”

 

    “She was judging you.”

 

    “And you assume I had anything to do with that?” He scoffed. Her response was a single raised eyebrow and he sighed, leaning back and looking up at the ceiling. “Your friend is testing me, and I’m fairly certain she will find me lacking no matter what I do.”

 

    “I wouldn’t bet on it. She has very high and specific standards, but she’s fair.”

 

    “You’re biased,” He dismissed.

 

    “You’re new,” She countered.

 

    He was silent for a while, not really able to refute that; she did know the woman much better than he did, after all. He straightened up a bit and looked back over at her. “Your dreams last night were troubled.”

 

    She frowned a bit. “That a fact?”

 

    “Edith...” He turned to face her fully and she turned her head towards him. “Tell me?”

 

    “... Nat put you up to this, didn’t she?”

 

    “You know the answer to that perfectly well, now stop stalling.”

 

    Edith was quiet for a long while, more than a little reluctant to revisit her nightmare, but finally looked forward again and let out a deep sigh, knowing he wasn’t going to just let the subject go. “I was back at the Helicarrier with Nat, running.” She hugged the shark tighter. “Thor didn’t show up...”

 

    Loki grimaced a bit, having a pretty good idea where it went from there. “You are in one piece, and so is Lady Romanoff.”

 

    A giggle bubbled out of her and she looked at him. “I wouldn’t let _her_ hear you call her that.”

 

    He rolled his eyes, smiling slightly all the same at the sound of her laughter. “I’ll try to remember that.”

 

    “How did you even know I had a nightmare, anyway?”

 

    “I had to carry you here after you fell asleep on me, remember?” He prudently left out the part where he was watching her sleep after the fact; whatever the reasons, he didn’t think it would go over too well.

 

    She narrowed her eyes a bit, but didn’t investigate further, for which he was more than a little grateful. “I don’t usually get nightmares after a fight,” She felt the need to say.

 

    He huffed slightly. “That was a tad bit more than ‘a fight’, Edith; and I wouldn’t judge you even if you did.”

 

    “Still don’t,” She insisted with a slight pout, earning a soft chuckle.

 

    “I believe you.” They were silent for a moment then he reached for her hand, entwining their fingers. “Was there anything else?”

 

    She shook her head then her brow furrowed. “Changed into that cave you took me to, for some reason.” She caught his quickly suppressed smile and narrowed her eyes. “And now I know why.”

 

    “My involvement was minimal, I assure you; I was only trying to help.”

 

    “Not mad at you,” She assured. “Thank you.”

 

    “You’re welcome.”

 

    Another bout of silence followed then she tugged on his hand a bit to get his attention, earning a questioning look. “Where do we go from here?”

 

    He huffed. “I have no idea; this is very much the opposite of what I had planned.”

 

    “Wow, that’s helpful.”

 

    “I’m not sure, Edith; I don’t really even know where we are right now.” He sighed. “I care for you, I know that much. I have for some time, I just didn’t want to accept it, let alone admit it.”

 

    “Oh, come on, I’m not _that_ bad!” That earned an amused snort and she sat up straight and smacked him across the face with her shark. “Like you’re any better.”

 

    “Excuse you; _I_ am a _saint.”_

 

    Edith burst out laughing so hard, she would have fallen off the bed if not for Loki’s quick reflexes as he lunged forward to catch her. As he pulled them upright, he caught her gaze and held it intently for a long moment; before she could say anything, he closed the rest of the distance and kissed her deeply, pulling her as close against him as physically possible, though she didn’t seem to mind as she responded.

 

    Perhaps he had a few ideas after all.


	25. Chapter 25

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> At Last! Finally found the motivation to finish this chapter. *throws confetti*

    “I’ve been meaning to ask,” Edith spoke up suddenly as she watched Loki use his magick to help clear some of the debris in the affected areas of the tower. She was meant to be helping, and to her credit, she _had_... for about five minutes.

 

    “I have no idea where mother keeps the fire stones,” Loki interrupted without looking at her.

 

    “That’s not what... wait; the what, now?”

 

    _“No,”_ Steve said firmly as he walked away with a crate full of broken glass and metal in his arms.

 

    Loki glanced over and chuckled, more at her ensuing pout, then turned back to his task. “What is it, then?”

 

    “Why this pendant?” Edith asked, holding up the object in question. She’d rather gotten used to wearing it - it wasn’t as though she had any choice, after all - and she figured it had some significance to him, but she had yet to ask about it.

 

    “Convenience; I was wearing it at the time.”

 

    “Uh-huh. And the _real_ reason?”

 

    Loki paused and looked back at her, mildly surprised she had caught him out - it was only half a lie, and one of omission at that. She simply arched an eyebrow and waited, and he sighed, sending her a somewhat apologetic half smile. “It was a gift.”

 

    “Better.”

 

    “Why does it even matter?”

 

    “Because it does,” she replied with a shrug, “Excuse me for wanting to know you better.”

 

    “If it’s that important; why didn’t you ask before?”

 

“I didn’t really have to know before; it was just a minor curiosity.”

 

    He sent the last piece of concrete on its way then walked over and sat down on the floor beside her. “What changed?”

 

    “You ask me this after we made out for, what, half an hour? Really?” That earned a laugh.

 

    “Fair enough,” he conceded. “If we’re asking after material details; might I ask about your shark toy?”

 

    Edith smiled wistfully. “Nat gave it to me. I used to have one when I was a kid, and I saw one in what was left of a store during our first mission together. I didn’t stop to get it ’cause, you know, we were kind of busy; after, when I walked into my room after debriefing, there it was.”

 

    He smiled at the tale, but there was that pang again, that strange envy-worry-fear. He simply couldn’t make sense of it. “You have a particular bond with La-... _Agent_ Romanoff, don’t you?”

 

    “Ah, we’re learning!” That got her an unamused look that she giggled at. “Yeah, I do. I’ve mentioned she’s the one who first taught me to fight,” a nod, “Well, that’s not all she taught me. Nat taught me to survive.”

 

    Loki hummed. “And your ‘rules’?”

 

    “That’s for me to know, and for you to _maybe_ find out,” Edith replied with a smirk, kissing his cheek and standing up.

 

    “You really think you can keep a secret from _me?”_

 

    “There’s one way to find out...” she sang, walking backwards away from him.

 

    “Oh, now you’ve done it,” he warned, standing up and following her, causing her to laugh.

 

****

 

    He ran into Tony on his way to wash up before dinner, and the two eyed each other appraisingly for a moment before he spoke. “Stark,” he greeted with a respectful nod. And he did respect the man; not many would have the guts to do what he had, and without hesitation besides.

 

    “Loki,” Tony greeted back, “You and I need to have a conversation.”

 

    “Is this the part where you warn me away from Edith, like a concerned parent?”

 

    Tony snorted softly. “I’m not her dad. More like the weird uncle. And I meant what I said yesterday; I’m happy for you. However this whole thing started, you seem to like each other well enough now. If you can make it work, I say go for it; chances like these don’t come along often.”

 

    “Then what is the point of this?” Loki asked, mildly confused. He had honestly forgotten Tony had witnessed him kissing Edith, much less said anything about it, at all.

 

    “The point is so I can warn you that if you hurt her in any way, I will personally launch you into the sun,” Tony replied casually then walked up to him. “But no pressure,” he finished, patting Loki’s back once, then continued on his way.

 

    Loki turned to watch him bemusedly then shook his head and continued to his appointed room, trying to decide how serious a threat that was.

 

****

 

    Edith was scrunching her hair dry with a towel, just walking out of her bathroom, when a sharp knock sounded from the door. She bid Steve to give her a second and grabbed a thick fluffy maroon bathrobe, throwing it on and tying it closed as she called for him to come in.

 

   “Hey,” she greeted, sitting down on her bed and going back to her hair, trying to squeeze as much water out of it as she could.

 

    “Hey,” Steve returned, grabbing her brush from atop her dresser and going to sit beside her, prompting her to turn her back to him. She dropped the towel and he began brushing out her hair. “So... you and Loki...”

 

    “I’m not gonna get The Talk from you, am I?” she asked jokingly.

 

    Steve chuckled. “I’d like to think you know as much as you need to, and maybe a bit more, about that.” She laughed and he smiled to himself at sound. “I’m just a little confused; I thought this was pretty much the opposite of the plan?”

 

    “Trust me, no one’s more confused about that than we are. It’s just... He’s really not that bad- ow!” she winced as the brush caught on a knot, causing him to apologise and pat her head apologetically, “I actually really like him. Maybe more than like; I haven’t really... I’m not sure I’m ready to think that far ahead yet. It just...” she shrugged, “Happened.”

 

    He breathed a laugh. “Yeah. It’ll do that. Well, as long as you’re happy. What are you gonna do about his dad, though? He’s probably gonna push for you two to get married a lot more once he gets wind of this, if he hasn’t already.”

 

    “He can push all he wants,” she scoffed, “I’m not marrying anyone until I damn well want to, _when_ I want to, _if_ I want to.”

 

    “Well said,” he replied approvingly.

 

    There was another knock at the door and she called that it was open. A recently showered Loki walked in, pausing as he realised she was not alone. “Ah; I’m sorry, I did not mean to interrupt.”

 

    “You’re not, I’m just getting interrogated,” Edith joked.

 

    “A friendly chat is not an interrogation, Edith,” Steve said with a roll of his eyes.

 

    “Tell that to Fury.” Steve laughed, not really able to refute that, and she turned back to Loki. “What’s up?”

 

    Loki smiled slightly embarrassed. “It would seem the habit of escorting you to dinner was not, in fact, left behind in Asgard.”

 

     “To be fair, it’s only been, like, two days,” Edith managed through a laugh. “Give me a minute to get dressed. You know, once Steve’s done playing with my hair.”

 

    Steve scoffed good-naturedly. “You’re very welcome.”

 

    She leaned back against him and reached her arms up and back to hug him as best she could from that position, which he returned with a laugh before pushing her forward to finish the job. Once that was done, Steve got up and followed Loki out of the room so Edith could get dressed.

 

    “I’m surprised I’ve heard no warning from you regarding Edith,” Loki spoke up after a moment, “You were quite protective of her on the battlefield.”

 

    Steve breathed a laugh. “Pretty sure Tony’s beat me to it. And if it ever became necessary to intervene; I probably wouldn’t get the chance to do anything by the time he and Nat were done with you.” He turned a bit more serious. “You watched her back out there. You were there when she needed someone to be, and when she needed to be stopped. That counts. I won’t say I trust you, yet; I don’t know you. But it counts.”

 

    Loki thought it over then nodded graciously. “For whatever it is worth; I have no intention of hurting her. I am not yet sure how deep these feelings I have for her go, but I do know that I would greatly prefer to see her happy.”

 

    Steve went to reply but Edith walked out of the room at that moment, dressed in a knee-length teal maxi dress, and he nodded to the god instead. Edith looked between them curiously but decided not to ask, simply took Loki’s offered arm and they headed for the elevator.


	26. Chapter 26

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I did it! I fucking did it! Take that, writer's block! HA! *ahem* Anyway. Yeah. Enjoy! XD

    It was a week later during lunch that they heard the most unwelcome sound of the tower’s mission alarm going off, and the team let out a collective groan.

 

    “Seriously, why can’t the bad guys ever take the weekend off?” Clint huffed and made to stand up, but Steve was quicker and stopped him with a hand on his shoulder.

 

    “You’re sitting this one out, Clint.” Clint opened his mouth to insist he was fine (again), but Steve spoke over him, “No; you’re still recovering from that concussion.” With a slight glint in his eye, he added, “Don’t make me tell Nat to stop you.”

 

    Clint looked over at Natasha for assistance, but she merely smiled pleasantly at him, letting him know that she’d do it and he would not like how. He threw his hands up in defeat. “Fine! I’ll go take a nap or something,” he grumbled, and Steve let him up.

 

    “The sooner you rest,” Steve began as Clint walked off to the elevator.

 

    “The sooner I recover; yeah, yeah,” Clint finished for him, sounding for all the world like a sulking child.

 

    When he was gone, Edith let out a snort. “He’s never going to learn, is he?” she said, and they all shared a laugh before turning to the nearest holoscreen for the mission details.

 

    “Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Tony half mumbled as they watched a handful of obvious knockoffs of one of his older suits apparently robbing a laboratory of some kind.

 

    “That makes, what, third time this year?” Edith asked, and the billionaire grumbled something that she couldn’t catch but made Steve arch an eyebrow at him and Loki to choke slightly on his drink at the unexpected laugh.

 

    “Anyway,” Steve said pointedly, “Suit up.” He pointed at Edith as she stood. “Not you.”

 

    “Wha...?”

 

    “Edie; it’s a lab, probably full of all kinds of flammable stuff...”

 

    “... Yeah, okay, I see your point.”

 

    “Make sure Clint doesn’t do anything stupid?”

 

    “Probably too late for that, but, sure!” Edith replied with a salute, earning chuckles as Steve, Tony and Natasha left the room.

 

    A slightly awkward silence hung in the room as Edith, Loki and Bruce finished their lunches. While Edith was no longer avoiding Bruce, exactly, she wasn’t really all that comfortable around him yet, which he completely understood. The scientist was mostly just happy she didn’t flinch when he entered the room anymore. Once done eating, Bruce excused himself, picked up his plate and took it to the sink then left.

 

    Edith looked at Loki to find he was already looking at her and she raised an eyebrow. “What?” In lieu of a reply, he leaned in and kissed her deeply. When they parted, she smiled a bit. “What was that for?”

 

    “I need a reason?” Loki asked back, causing her to roll her eyes.

 

    She turned back to her plate, which was when she noticed her last mozzarella stick was missing, and looked back up in time to watch him take a bite out of it. “Oh, you asshole!” she cried and shoved him, earning a laugh. “Ugh! I don’t like you anymore,” she grumbled, crossing her arms at her chest.

 

    “Worth it,” he chimed in response, earning a glare that he grinned at. He made as though to eat the rest of the mozzarella stick, but then held it up to her lips. She narrowed her eyes at him suspiciously but ultimately took the offering, causing him to smile. “I wasn’t going to eat all of it, dýrr minn; I am not _that_ cruel.”

 

    “You’re still an ass,” Edith retorted with a pout.

 

    “Well, yes,” Loki replied simply, making her snort a laugh. “So, now that we’ve sorted that; what shall we do with the rest of our day?”

 

    Edith gave it some thought then shrugged. “I dunno. I should at least go check that Clint’s actually in bed.”

 

    “He is,” Loki replied with absolute certainty.

 

    “How do you-” Edith began, but was interrupted by someone clearing their throat on her other side, and she looked to find another Loki calmly sitting on the table.

 

    “Master sorcerer, remember?” the copy said with a wink.

 

    “Okay, that is both impressive and slightly disconcerting.”

 

    Both Lokis laughed then the copy disappeared in a shimmer of green magick; the real Loki then stood and offered Edith his hand. “Shall we find what mischief we can cause?” he asked with a grin.

 

    Edith grinned back as she took his hand. “You have to ask?”

 

****

 

    Edith found herself wandering the labs by herself, having lost Loki a few minutes after introducing him to the R&D team that made most of her equipment. They hadn’t ignored her on purpose, of course, but she’d known it was a possibility once they started talking shop; it took a bit of manoeuvring to find common ground given the language barrier, but once they figured it out, they were more than happy to talk to Loki about current and past projects, especially when he helped them figure out a problem one of them was having. And so she left them to it, figuring Loki would come find her whenever he remembered her existence again.

 

    She walked past an open door to see Bruce sitting on a stool before a work table and backed up a bit, noticing something odd. Sure enough, he didn’t appear to be looking at the equipment in front of him, and watching him more closely, she thought he looked troubled. After a moment’s hesitation, she knocked on the door, causing him to start a bit then look over.

 

    “Oh, hey,” he greeted, seeming surprised to see her.

 

    “Hey,” she greeted back with a little wave then took a few steps into the room. “Everything okay? You look a little down.”

 

    His lips twitched up a bit and he looked down. “No; everything’s not okay.” He looked back at her and smiled a bit. “But thanks for asking.”

 

    “Need to talk about it? Because I’m a pretty good listener.”

 

    “I don’t... I don’t want to trouble you,” he hesitated, giving her a way out mostly out of habit.

 

    Edith bit her bottom lip briefly then walked further into the room, dragging a stool over from another table and sitting next to him. “Wouldn’t have offered if I didn’t mean it,” she assured, “So what’s up?”

 

    Bruce gave it some thought, but ultimately decided to take the offer. “It’s just, last week. Guess it’s still weighing on me.”

 

    Edith took a deep breath and let it out in a whoosh. “Yeah, that was... a hell of a day. You’re not the only one still working through it, I promise.”

 

    “You all seem to be handling it a lot better, though,” he countered with a self-deprecating smile.

 

    “Ohhh, no,” Edith laughed, “No, dude, we’re a mess, every single one of us; we just have more practice hiding it.” She looked up at the ceiling, bracing her hands on the edges of the seat and leaning back a bit. “Big alien invasion’s a new one, but we don’t get days off for good behaviour.” She looked back at him. “That whole day was a mess, but… anything in particular sticking out?”

 

    Bruce was silent for a moment, then let out a deep sigh and looked up at Edith. “I killed someone,” he admitted heavily, “The chitauri I can get past; they were more like... like mindless drones than anything. But the guy leading them?”

 

    “Almost got a hell of a lot more people killed,” Edith cut in. She leaned forward towards him in her seat, the closest she’d willingly gotten to him so far, and gave him a sympathetic look. “Look, I’m not gonna say it doesn’t matter. Of course it does if it bothers you, and that’s okay. You’re allowed to be bothered by it now that it’s over, but don’t let that keep you from seeing what was prevented from happening.”

 

    Bruce looked back at her for a long while. “No offence, but that’s really weird to hear from a kid.”

 

    Edith let out a laugh. “Well, if it helps, I’m just repeating what Nat told me the first time I had to kill an enemy.”

 

    Bruce chuckled. “Yeah, that does help.”

 

    “Good,” Edith grinned then turned to the table, “So, whatcha working on?”

 

    Bruce smiled, relaxing for what seemed the first time in weeks, and began explaining as best he could.


End file.
